As part of NATO's Unified Vision 2014 exercise, a Norwegian artillery unit sets up its self-propelled howitzers.

As part of NATO's Unified Vision 2014 exercise, a Norwegian artillery unit sets up its self-propelled howitzers. NATO

This Graph Shows How NATO’s Military Capability Has Evolved Since 1949

Three takeaways from the annual spending trends of each alliance member over NATO's 65-year history in 2011 U.S. dollars. By Janine Davidson

As representatives of twenty-eight NATO member nations convene in Wales for the 2014 NATO summit, there are a number of significant issues under discussion. One overriding concern, however, remains the proportional defense spending and overall military capability of the alliance. In order to provide context for this debate, we have visualized a publicly available dataset on military expenditures compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). This graph traces, in constant U.S. 2011 dollars, the annual spending trends of each alliance member. To our knowledge, this represents the most comprehensive timeline of NATO’s 65-year evolution:

How To Use This Graph

This is a fully interactive visualization that can be freely embedded in other websites or shared via social media. It carries no parameters beyond a requirement of citation.

The size of the pie chart corresponds to the total, combined defense spending of all NATO member nations. Each individual slice corresponds to a specific NATO country. Military spending data are tracked in constant 2011 U.S. dollars, in millions. At a glance, it is possible to see the respective defense expenditures of each NATO member in a given year. It is also possible to see what percentage of this total is represented by the United States (e.g. in 1949, the U.S. constituted 68.94% of spending among NATO nations).

The timeline beneath the pie chart can be moved to display data for any year between 1949 and 2013. Moreover, the “NATO Nations” legend can be manipulated to selectively include or exclude specific countries from the visualization. This makes it possible to compare defense spending trends between any group of countries in the twenty-seven nation series.

Clicking on a specific slice of the pie chart will also show the “history” of that slice, illustrating at which points a nation’s spending is at its maximum extent (e.g. in 1989, France’s military spending was at a historic high; in 1992, it was not).

Caveats and Disclaimers

This graph displays the total military spending of each NATO nation—the alliance’s theoretic maximum military capability. This should not be conflated with nations’ contributions to NATO missions, which may be considerably smaller. Iceland, the only NATO member that lacks a standing army, is excluded from this graph.

Unfortunately, there is insufficient public data to unpack the NATO-specific commitments of each country. It can be assumed, however, that the relative NATO contribution of European nations with locally based militaries may be quite high. On the other hand, the United States, with a global military presence, may contribute a much smaller proportion of its total military power to NATO. In the event of a major European crisis, however, this capability could be reoriented accordingly.

Finally, it is important to note that defense spending is only one determinant of overall military ability—although it is a significant one. A comprehensive picture of NATO’s military evolution would require similar modeling of personnel and materiel. However, this graph provides a good place from which to launch additional inquiries in future.

What This Graph Tells Us

While there are numerous conclusions to be drawn from this data, there are several points that pop out immediately.

  • In constant 2011 dollars, the total military spending of NATO nations in 2010 was greater than at any other point in the alliance’s history. This includes at any point during the Cold War.
  • NATO defense spending was at its most disproportionate in 1952, when the United States constituted almost 77 percent of the alliance total.
  • Conversely, NATO military spending was closest to parity in 1999, when the United States constituted 55 percent of total defense expenditures. This is likely due to thelong-term, muscular commitment that NATO made to stability operations in the Balkans. U.S. troops comprised only a minority of the NATO-led Stability Force, which oversaw Balkans reconstruction from 1996 to 2004.

Emerson Brooking, research associate for defense policy, contributed to this post.

This post appears courtesy of CFR.org.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.