‘Europe is going to pay in a big way’ — a social war against their own people

At the Nato summit in The Hague, heads of state and government decided on the most significant assault on the European welfare state since World War II. US President Donald Trump gives the orders, and Europe follows like lemmings. Nato plans to spend $3 trillion on armaments — equivalent to 5 per cent of GDP by 2035. That nearly doubles defence spending over the next decade, even though Nato already spends more than all other nations combined.

This massive militarisation will be paid for through cuts to pensions, healthcare, education, social services, and infrastructure. Massive debt programmes won’t save future generations from ruin. The summit triggers the most profound social cuts in post-war European history.

Nato is a nostalgic alliance

Nato is a nostalgic, even romantic alliance — it dwells in past glories, as if time froze 50 years ago. The current arms build-up is often defended by citing similar defence-to-GDP ratios from the 1960s and ’70s. But then, economic growth averaged 6.4 per cent yearly in West Germany, compared to –0.3 per cent in 2023, –0.2 per cent in 2024, and projected further decline in 2025.

Invoking the past thus distorts today’s militarisation, which — like fascism — can end only in war and conquest. Nato is also outdated because the global South has shifted the world order: Brics now account for 40 per cent of global GDP (with Indonesia just joining), while the G7 makes up only 29 per cent compared to two-thirds in 2006.

Efforts to cut Brics off from key technologies through export controls (like the cold war’s COCOM list) are doomed: China leads 37 of 44 critical tech fields. The strategy of hyper-armament is turning into a boomerang. Nato topples itself. The threat of overextension is palpable — especially as US allies are burdened to hold the global order together. 

Nato is a neocolonial alliance

Nato aims to dictate to countries worldwide. Officials now celebrate Iran’s lack of a nuclear programme — even though Iran, as a Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty signatory, has every right to one. This is nothing but neocolonial domination.

Meanwhile, Nato unconditionally supports Israel — despite genocide and aggression toward Iran. Israel, unconstrained by the NPT and unsupervised by the IAEA, has acquired nuclear weapons with no Nato sanctions.

Yet even this neocolonial double standard is threatened by a changing world order. How long will countries tolerate Nato’s bullying? Resistance grows, as all outdated powers collapse. As US dominance declines, some may resort to extreme measures to sustain the unsustainable.

Not defence

Nato’s massive rearmament is not about defence — it’s war preparation. They aim to maintain global hegemony at any cost, extracting resources from allies to fund it. Their strategy? Be ready for global three-front warfare.

In Europe, Europeans themselves are meant to fight; Ukraine is meant to become Nato’s proxy war. The goal remains crippling Russia. Europeans finance Ukraine’s weapons, while the US secures the region’s resources. In the Middle East, Israel acts as a floating aircraft carrier for Nato and the US. If Israel falters, the US intervenes. In the Indo-Pacific, it’s China’s turn — an intricate web of US bases underwrites this. But does this global overreach deepen Nato’s own crisis?

An alliance of war lies

Nato claims US and Israeli attacks on Iran are “defence” — a stark perversion. The aggression during Yugoslavia and Libya proves it further. With recent escalations, Nato emerges as an alliance of rogue states using terror as policy.

Why call them rogue? They ignore or erode international law. They support Iranian regime change or Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The alleged impending Russian attack on Nato within five years is yet another intelligence-driven fabrication — just like the lead-up to Iraq and now the hysteria around Iran’s nuclear ambitions, even when US services disagree.

Vassalhood

Joining Nato means surrendering sovereignty. Previously, covert forces like Italy’s Gladio or Turkey’s Hezbollah shadowed left-wing critics. Today’s summit leaves no room for independent fiscal, economic, or social policy — poverty is pre-programmed. Nato’s diplomacy increasingly resembles crime syndicates.

Europe is reduced to vassalage, slavishly implementing Washington’s dictates. The North Atlantic leadership even adopted Trump’s motto of “peace through strength.” This gigantic rearmament doesn’t make Europe stronger — it makes it more submissive.

The Nato secretary-general’s genuflection to Trump — (“Europe is going to pay in a BIG way as they should, and it will be your win”) — summarises it: European leaders fail to voice their own interests. 

Greater dependency

More European defence spending doesn’t mean more European influence — it serves US hegemony. The EU acts as a Nato subsidiary. There’s no independent European foreign or security policy.

Countries resisting Washington are bullied into compliance — see Slovakia and Spain, which reluctantly signed off on the 5 per cent target. Any exceptions are temporary. Nato membership and political sovereignty are mutually exclusive. The US claims a de facto right to intervene in domestic politics if a country disobeys.

Today, only neutrality can protect democratic sovereignty. That is why Nato is courting neutral European countries like Switzerland and Austria. Nato expansion in Europe and Asia is ongoing, aiming ever wider. Ukraine’s president was invited to this summit to underscore expansion ambitions. The US frames the accession of neighbouring countries — and nearby missile deployments — as a cause for war, yet expects Russia and China to accept Nato’s expansion without objection.

A global Nato and ideological hegemony

Since last year’s Washington summit, Nato defines itself as a global alliance. This was reaffirmed in The Hague by inviting Australia’s PM Anthony Albanese, Japan’s Shigeru Ishiba, New Zealand’s Christopher Luxon, and South Korea’s Lee Jae Myung.

The idea that Nato is limited to the North Atlantic is now a romantic relic. Inspired by the James Bond classic, The World Is Not Enough, it serves US global dominance. That inevitably clashes with the Brics, because Nato upholds a declining order. Proxy wars in Ukraine and the Middle East preserve resources — but how long can that succeed?

Nato’s myth of being “the winner of history” falls flat after almost 40 years beyond the cold war. It now resembles an alliance of failed wars — Afghanistan, Ukraine. Domestically, it suppresses dissent via propaganda and institutional dominance. Why are there so few critical Nato scholars or books? Critics are labelled conspiracy theorists and silenced.

This is ideological totalitarianism — a shield preserving a dominant self-image by marginalising critics. Meanwhile, those who echo Nato’s official narrative earn positions on talk shows and at universities.

Sevim Dagdelen is a foreign policy expert for the BSW — Bundnis Sahra Wagenknecht party. She was a member of the German Bundestag from 2005 to 2025. Her book Nato: A Reckoning with the Atlantic Alliance was published by LeftWord Books.