Even when it comes to the closest allies, America’s alliances are imperfect. Still, the engagement of so many foreign militaries in ceremonies to mark America’s 250th anniversary underlines how America still has many friends and is stronger for them.
The list of participants in this year’s celebrations is a long one. We’ve seen America’s respective oldest and closest allies, France and the United Kingdom, send their elite air force demonstration teams for U.S. flyovers. We’ve seen Spain send four warships to New York City’s International Naval Review. Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Morocco, Norway, South Korea, and Turkey also sent warships to the review. Again, this does not mean we should close our eyes to challenges in our foreign partnerships.
NATO provides political and economic space for vast trade, tourism, and social engagements that make Americans, Canadians, and Europeans safer and more prosperous. But even as Germany, Poland, and the Baltic States now lead the way in defense spending, too many other NATO members, such as Italy and Spain, continue to neglect burden sharing. Nor did any of the alliance’s 31 other members provide adequate defensive support against recent, relentless Iranian attacks on international shipping. Indeed, America’s nominally closest ally, the U.K., failed on both these counts (the failure of the Royal Navy to deploy more than a patrol boat to this year’s celebrations testifies to this military decline).
A similar tale applies to Israel. Responsible for eliminating numerous terrorists drenched in American blood, Israel also provides an anchor point for American power in the Middle East. At the same time, however, Israel’s sharing of sensitive technologies with China has jeopardized American security. Israel also continues to engage in hostile espionage activity against the United States of a kind that is unmatched by any other U.S. ally. Still, both Israel and NATO provide far greater benefits as allies than they do costs. At a basic monetary level, the value of NATO allied imports from, or investments into, the U.S. is at least 61 times greater than that of Russia.
It’s also true that President Donald Trump’s penchant for callous insults and fire-from-the-hip trade policies has undermined America’s position abroad. Trump deeply upset the British when he casually insulted the sacrifice of British troops in Afghanistan (though Trump later backtracked). Trump also undermined Israeli trust by launching public screeds against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Japanese trust by backing China in its confrontation with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. Worst of all, Trump undercut decades of American moral and strategic reliability with his threats to the Danish territory of Greenland.
Nevertheless, Americans should take solace in the durable vitality of our foreign friendships. Contrast this with Russia, which could only scrounge up a mix of corrupted dictators and monarchs to attend its most recent Second World War victory parade in Moscow. These alliances bring benefits beyond active economic, diplomatic, and military cooperation. After all, when the world’s warships gather in one of America’s greatest cities simply to celebrate America’s birthday, they are illustrating the value their governments place on good relations with America. This is noticed in Beijing, Pyongyang, Havana, Moscow, and Tehran.
As a result, while China does not know whether or not any foreign allies would come to America’s side in a war over Taiwan or the Philippines, for example, it must assess that prospect in its military planning. Although it could be bolstered by greater military spending on the part of our allies, the deterrent value of America’s alliances helps to preserve the peace.
WEAK EUROPEAN NAVIES ARE UNDERMINING AMERICA
Even as the U.S. necessarily pushes allies to support our international objectives and invest in our shared defense, we shouldn’t take our partners for granted. Nor should we take for granted why these allies want to maintain their close relationships with us. It’s because America stands for freedom, the rule of law, and the defense of sovereign democracies against the whims of terrorists and tyrants.
250 years old, America is doing well. Militaries from around the world have just proven as much.