During the extended period of peace following the end of the Cold War, NATO member states significantly reduced their defense spending, capturing what became known as the “peace dividend.”1 In Europe, countries spent an estimated $1.6 trillion2 less on defense since 1992 than they would have under the Alliance’s 2 percent of GDP target set in 2014,3 part of a broader transatlantic drawdown that also saw reductions in US defense expenditures.
This spending trajectory, alongside other post–Cold War dynamics, coincided with sharp reductions in force levels across the Alliance,4 with the number of active-duty troops falling from approximately 5.0 soldiers per 1,000 citizens in 1990 to 2.5 today in some countries. Most countries in Europe saw a steep reduction of 60 to 70 percent, with total active-duty forces dropping from more than 3.5 million in the early 1990s to fewer than 2.0 million in 2020.5
To read the full article, download the PDF here.
