During the Cold War, the United States subsidized its allies’ defense while they got rich. Instead of building up their own defenses to counter the Soviet Union—a much more likely threat to Europe and East Asia than to the United States—they were able to divert scarce resources into their civilian economies to compete with U.S. commercial industries. Despite the United States heavily subsidizing their security, many allies failed to fully open their markets to U.S. products. In some case, the United States had to accept allied protectionism as the price for stationing protection forces in allied nations! These alliances not only suck up U.S. cash by keeping U.S. defense budgets excessively high to fund rich allies’ security, they provide no incentive to such countries to spend more on their own defenses—a phenomenon called “free riding.” Even more important, these outdated alliances have become permanent and ends in themselves—any U.S. alliance should be temporary and serve U.S. security interests at the time—and impede U.S. flexibility in foreign policy in a changed era. Outdated alliances prior to World War I helped drag European countries, and eventually the United States, into a war nobody wanted and that led to a calamitous twentieth century—ultimately causing World War II and the Cold War. Current U.S. alliance policy has gotten so ridiculous that America is now borrowing money from China to subsidize the defense of rich East Asian allies in their quest to militarily counter... well... China.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 02:41:53 +0000
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