Our Republican Legacy Supports Strong, Continuing U.S. Commitment to our NATO Alliance

The issue. The current Administration treats friends like enemies and enemies like friends. As an example, President Trump continues to disparage our North American Treaty Organization (NATO) allies and threatens to withdraw from NATO, threatening U.S. security, foreign policy priorities, and economic interests in a world of global trade, investment, and capital flows. His continuing negative and harmful comments about NATO and actions only weaken the alliance while helping our adversaries like Russia and Iran.

The United States helped found the North American Treaty Organization (NATO) after World War II as an essential defensive alliance of twelve member states initially in North America and Europe. The U.S. Senate gave its advice and consent to the ratification of the NATO treaty on July 21, 1949, by a vote of 82-13. The U.S. Congress has approved every expansion of NATO members since, which now total 32 with the addition of Sweden and Finland most recently as a result of Russia’s illegal aggression in Europe against Ukraine. The United States has been the only beneficiary of the collective defense article in the NATO treaty after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

NATO remains one of our most powerful tools for preserving national security, projecting global influence, and preventing major-power conflict. As a defensive alliance built on collective security, NATO amplifies U.S. military, diplomatic, and economic power in ways the United States cannot replicate alone. The strategic logic for continued full participation rests on three pillars: deterrence, burden sharing, and global stability.

First, NATO is the United States’ most effective deterrent against aggression from Russia and other hostile actors. The alliance’s Article 5 commitment—treating an attack on one member as an attack on all—has prevented large‑scale conflict in Europe for more than seven decades. European stability directly benefits the United States: Europe is America’s largest trading partner, a critical base for U.S. forward operations, and the primary geopolitical arena where Russian military threat is strongest. NATO’s infrastructure enables U.S. forces to operate globally, providing basing and logistical access that would otherwise require complex bilateral agreements or significantly larger and unilateral U.S. deployments. As former U.S. NATO ambassadors and generals have emphasized, NATO serves as a “force multiplier,” allowing the United States to maintain global readiness at far lower cost than unilateral alternatives.

Second, NATO dramatically reduces the burden on U.S. taxpayers and service members. Allies contribute hundreds of billions of dollars annually to collective defense and supply substantial forces for coalition missions. While this Administration has correctly pointed out that there was an inequity in burden sharing among the members, this conclusion does not justify undermining the organization. Rather, the proper focus should be on ensuring that all members share the financial burden equitably. 

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After 9/11, NATO allies patrolled U.S. airspace and later provided between one‑third and two‑thirds of the troops in Afghanistan, suffering more than a thousand casualties and contributing billions in funding. Today, with non‑U.S. NATO defense spending exceeding $560 billion and rising, as it should, the alliance provides capabilities the United States would not be able to match if funding the entire enterprise. Without NATO, U.S. defense spending would need to increase significantly simply to maintain our security through Europe’s defense and secure vital trade routes for the United States and global commerce.

Third, NATO advances core U.S. interests in economic security, counterterrorism, intelligence sharing, cyber defense, and nonproliferation. The alliance protects the transatlantic trade system, underpins cooperation against terrorist networks, and provides intelligence contributions that no single nation— including the United States—could collect independently. NATO’s integrated command structure and standardization agreements give the United States unmatched military interoperability. Nuclear‑sharing arrangements reduce the risk that allies might pursue their own nuclear arsenals, a scenario several European leaders have warned could become more likely without reliable U.S. commitments.

Alongside these strategic arguments, current U.S. law strongly reinforces our continued participation. In 2023, Congress enacted Section 1250A of the NDAA FY 2024, the first statute explicitly prohibiting any President from suspending, terminating, or withdrawing the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty without either two‑thirds Senate consent or an act of Congress. The law also bans the use of funds to support unauthorized withdrawal.

ORL policy position. Consistent with ORL’s principle of peace through strength, NATO is a strategic advantage that secures U.S. interests for far fewer resources than going it alone. Our continued participation in NATO protects the U.S. economy, deters our adversaries, strengthens our allies, and anchors a rules‑based international order that has prevented global war for three generations. Remaining a full and active NATO member is not only consistent with U.S. values, but also essential to America’s security in a world of rising geopolitical risks, hybrid warfare, and now active wars on two fronts in the Middle East (Iran) and Europe (Ukraine).

ORL recommended actions. Based on our principles, Our Republican Legacy’s recommendations for action to preserve and protect our interests in NATO are threefold:

1. The President must cease and desist his continuing antagonism towards our NATO allies (Denmark/Greenland) and reckless threats to withdraw from NATO. The President may insist on increased resources from other nations as an ally rather than as an antagonist. Otherwise, the United States will continue to see its global influence as a force for good in support of a rules-based international order further erode;

2. The Administration and the Congress must work together to ensure full and unswerving U.S. support for NATO’s mission and defense capabilities in support of our binding treaty commitment; and

3. Congress must use its full constitutional authority to ensure that the Trump Administration does not further undermine U.S. participation in NATO by its words or deeds. Any attempt to withdraw illegally or effectively disengage from NATO without rigorous oversight and authorization must be resisted by Congress.