Dear Americans,
You may not be too aware of it, but the outside world is waiting—and worrying, about the choice you will make on 5th November. Should you care? I suggest you should.
In a world of hypersonic missiles, rogue states, pandemic bugs and nuclear sabre rattling, you certainly can’t rely on isolationism to keep you safe.
After all, you tried it before, and it ended in tears. When the Kaiser in the First World War decided to sink all US ships, including passenger liners, isolationism ended. When the emperor of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, it ended. And when Al-Qaeda brought down the Twin Towers, violating the American homeland, isolationism ended with a tragic bang. It should not be tried again.
America is big enough, wealthy enough and militarily strong enough to withstand most threats, but certainly not all of them. In an increasingly dangerous, complex, interconnected world what you need are friends and allies. And that’s where you Americans are so lucky.
I know only too well, as I served as the 10th secretary general of Nato, that you are continually told that the Europeans don’t carry the burden of western defence. We don’t, it’s true, spend as much as we should on defence; you contribute a greater share of your national wealth. But defensive shields don’t depend on spending alone and Nato, the most successful voluntary alliance of like-thinking nations in history, is a real bargain for you Americans.
Every week, you sit at the North Atlantic Council table with 31 national friends and allies. And they are not just nominal friends. They are there for you and robustly with you when you’re in trouble. Do Russia or China, the mullahs in Tehran and the mad man in Pyongyang have any real friends? No chance.
On the day after the 9/11 attacks, I was the guy who, on behalf of the Nato nations, invoked Article 5 of the treaty: an attack on one is an attack on all. An attack on America was seen as an attack not just on New York and Washington but on all the other 18 countries in the alliance. It meant something. Remember that French headline Nous sommes tous Américains?
So the United States gets to lead that alliance, which is a real alliance and not the fiction of the Warsaw Pact and the temporary convenience of Brics. These are genuine partners, who when crisis strikes will come to fight and lose lives and treasure with you.
What’s more, the $300bn a year—and rising—spent by European Nato allies magnifies and multiplies the money America spends on defence. A billion people on both sides of the Atlantic sleep easily at night because this alliance of nations, bound together by that Article 5 of the founding treaty, dares any adversary to cross the line. A trillion dollars in collective defence spending reinforces the message—and massively out-spends any actual or potential foe. For you, Americans, Nato is the bargain of all time.
Meanwhile in Ukraine they wait with bated breath for your decision. Brutally invaded by Putin’s Russia, a sovereign nation of some 40m people fights back, with your help and the help of the Nato allies. They are fighting for their land and their lives—and yours as well.
They know, and we know, that if Putin succeeds then he and the Chinese will rewrite the rules of the international order. And that will be as uncomfortable for you as it will be for the rest of us.
In invading Ukraine, Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has breached the UN Charter and a host of agreements made in the past. Putin won’t stop with Ukraine, we know, and China helps him—and lies in wait.
The friends of the US, and I have always been one, have their fingers crossed for your election. But finger-crossing will not ensure our and your safety and security if the wrong decision is made.
Remember, please, the whole free world is watching—and hoping.
