Europe’s security is on a knife edge. Russia’s war is moving increasingly past its border with Ukraine and the military alliance standing in the way of Putin faces an uncertain 2025 with the incoming US Presidency of The UK’s military capability is far from where it needs to be and now is the time to invest in it. At least that is the opinion of Britain’s once most senior military officer and former Nato Commander, Sir James Everard.
With a long and distinguished military career, including deployments in Bosnia, Germany and Iraq, Sir James went on to serve as Nato’s Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe until 2021. He has seen first-hand how the international military alliance works against“Nato leaders have agreed a really good strategy but they have also agreed the capabilities you need to deliver that strategy and so allies should be focused on delivering,” he toldUS contributions to Nato are vital to European security against Russia and the military alliance presents a key tool through which those contributions are directed. However, current US support is under threat from an incoming Trump presidency, which has sounded the alarm that US contributions to Nato will falter. Sir James said one way of ensuring the US maintains a strong commitment to Nato, was to ensure there was proper European investment in the alliance. The former Commander said higher spending targets were a “sensible” option to ease Trump’s anxieties over US membership. “If you have an incoming Trump administration then I would have thought agreeing a higher defence spending target before he gets there is sensible isn’t it,” he sai