US stirs up global arms race by pressuring allies

Source
China Military Online
Editor
Xu Yi
Time
2020-09-22 10:03:46

By Chen Yang

Speaking at an event hosted by the RAND Corporation on September 16, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper, in addition to continuing exaggerating the so-called threats from China, urged all US allies to increase defense spending to the ratio of at least 2% of GDP, a demand the US administration only made on NATO members previously. Washington’s request for all allies to increase defense budget is tantamount to stirring up a global arms race and destroying the current international order.

The US has kept asking its allies to increase military spending ever since Trump came into office. In February 2017, the then US Defense Secretary Mattis said at a NATO defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels that the US would appropriately fine tune its commitment to NATO if other allies failed to increase their military expenditure, citing American taxpayers would not bear unlimited expenses on safeguarding western values. In July 2018, Trump tweeted before attending a NATO summit that “the US is spending many times more than any other country to protect them. Not fair to the US taxpayer, unacceptable. These countries have paid more after I came along, but that’s far from enough”. He then asked all NATO members to increase their defense spending to 2% of GDP.

According to Li Haidong, a professor of the Institute of International Relations at the China Foreign Affairs University, America’s demand for all allies to increase their defense spending came as no surprise given its “America first” policy. Its purpose is to keep its allies from “taking a free ride” or “reaping the US” in military and security expenses. Washington knows very well that its current capacities and financial strength cannot sustain it in an effective strategic competition. Asking all the allies to spend more on defense is its ploy to get ready for that competition both now and beyond.

While asking its allies to increase military expenditure, the US is increasing its defense spending as well, recording the highest military budget in the world. According to the 2019 global military expense report released by SIPRI on April 27, the US ranks first globally with 38% of the world’s total defense spending, almost the combined total of the ten countries trailing it. Yet the US has kept increasing its military budget despite such a huge leading edge. Esper in his speech at Rand Corporation on September 16, called on Congress to provide “adequate, sustained, predictable, and timely budgets.” Li said the US has made it very clear that it views China and Russia as strategic competitors and believes their conflicts cannot be resolved through the pursuit for common interests. Under such a background, it not only increases its own military spending, but pressures all its allies to do the same, which may quickly push the world into a dangerous arms race.

From “America first” to rampant unilateralism, from tearing up treaties and exiting international organizations to demanding more defense spending on all allies, the US has completely forsaken its international obligations while pursuing its unilateral gains and purposes at the expense of other countries’ legitimate interests. It is becoming the biggest destroyer of international order today. The current international order established on the ruins of WWII, especially the collective security system with the UN at the core, has effectively safeguarded world peace and development. But the US recent policies and moves under the “America first” principle have substantively threatened the international order.

Li also pointed out that the US believes the international order must be centered on itself and is trying hard to maintain its unipolar hegemony, including disrupting the order if it purportedly deviates from US interests. The harm the incumbent US administration has done to this order since it came into office is far beyond the imagination of the international community.

As the world’s largest military power, the US should have a basic sense of responsibility for its policies, words and deeds, which should serve to govern the world rather than disrupt it. It is still attempting to challenge rules and bend them at its disposal, but the era of “the mighty call the shots” has long gone.

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