“If the US chooses to attack another NATO country, everything will stop,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Fredriksen said on Monday. The military alliance might well continue to exist, but its effectiveness would be called into fundamental question; the obvious beneficiary, an already aggressive Moscow. During the 2024 US election campaign, US President Donald Trump said he would not protect “delinquent” NATO members; countries that did not meet the then-target of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense. It was enough to provoke alarm in Europe, but diplomacy in the run-up to June’s NATO summit appeared to have massaged away the problem. Yet, rather than heal differences in opinion, it appears the NATO summit simply papered over a rift.
