The west has to dramatically “reboot” its approach to dealing with aggressors in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to UK foreign secretary Liz Truss. “Geopolitics is back”, she told an audience at the Mansion House in London recently in what has been reported as a major foreign policy speech. “We must be assertive. Aggressors are looking at what has happened in Ukraine. We need to make sure that they get the right message.”
Nato members appear to be on board with this in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and many countries now plan to spend more on their defence budgets. But decades of under-investment in defence have left the west vulnerable. And the billions of dollars of military aid some of these countries have already sent to Ukraine highlights many of the problems.
Across Nato, defence spending is now on the rise. In the immediate wake of the invasion of Ukraine the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, announced a €100 billion fund to upgrade the country’s armed forces and pledged to maintain a defence budget of 2% of GDP in future. Denmark says it will achieve the 2% goal by 2033, after having historically spent far below the Nato average on its defence.
