NATO’s new spending target: challenges and risks associated with a political signal

In a landmark shift, the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have endorsed a new national spending benchmark: 5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) to be invested annually in ‘core defence requirements as well as defence- and security-related spending’ by 2035. Enshrined in a joint declaration from the 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague, the spending pledge is being hailed as ‘historic’ by its proponents.