US diplomat issues warning on 'dangerous' defence imbalance

The American ambassador to the United Nations has described the defence cuts planned by the UK and other European countries as "very concerning".

Speaking in Brussels, Samantha Power urged Europe to increase military spending and provide more peacekeepers for conflicts around the world.

She urged EU nations to abide by the NATO pledge to devote a minimum of two per cent of their national budget to defence, noting that few European governments had met the goal.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Given the "range and severity" of the crises faced by the West today, one could reasonably argue that the proportion should be higher, she said.

Power argued that, with the US spending around four per cent of its GDP on defence, the imbalance is "not only unsustainable, it is dangerous".

Her intervention comes amid "growing pressure" on political parties to ring-fence defence spending after the general election, says the Financial Times.

Power also pointed out that the number of troops provided by EU governments for peacekeeping missions had dropped from 25,000 troops two decades ago to 6,000 today.

UN peacekeeping needs European militaries "more than ever", she said, adding that countries need not guarantee specific numbers, but pledge to stand ready to help future missions on a case-by-case basis.

Power later told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that, in light of threats such as Islamic State and Ebola, "the number of missions that require advanced militaries around the world is growing, not shrinking".

The approved budget for UN peacekeeping operations for 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015 is around $7.06 billion, which amounts to less than half of one per cent of world military expenditures, which was estimated at $1,747 billion in 2013.

Here are the UN's top ten providers of contributions to its peacekeeping operations for 2013 to 2015, as well as their military expenditure in 2013, according to figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute: