In what direction is modern NATO heading, observing the ongoing war in Ukraine? Where are the most significant security challenges in the West today? These and other strategic dilemmas emerged in an interview by Jacek Raubo (Defence24.pl) with Dr. Andrew A. Michta, Dean of the College of International and Security Studies operating within the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies.
Dr. Andrew A. Michta noted that Europe is currently facing a significant challenge: re-arm itself, especially when considering the situation in many of the armed forces of NATO countries after years of cuts and limitations in the defense field. These are proceeding from the patterns established in the period of the so-called peace dividend when it was possible to think that military needs were no longer so critical to the considerable stability of the transatlantic space.
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Therefore, nowadays, states must start investing urgently and more broadly in maintaining their armed forces at the level necessary in the context of events in Europe and the world, focusing less on the famous percentages of GDP spent on defense but instead on the appropriate spending of defense budgets, for example, by increasing the effectiveness in the sphere of preparing units to act in the realities of real threats.
Dr. Michta also notes the importance of the necessary changes in thinking about the armed forces and their industrial base. The most striking example nowadays, seeing the Ukrainian experience, is the production of, for example, ammunition.
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It is crucial to bring NATO forces to a level dedicated to modern battlefield standards and high-intensity combat operations. Dr. Michta noted at the same time that democratic states have the potential to mobilize and have the strength to compete with the challenges that arise in connection with the activity of non-democratic states, not only Russia itself.