At their meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, the defence ministers of the 32 NATO member states laid the groundwork for the largest military build-up in the alliance’s history. It is to be adopted in a matter of weeks, at the NATO summit in The Hague (June 24-25). This war summit marked a turning point in the preparations for a direct military confrontation with Russia and an devastating escalation of the global war.
The summit took place just days after the most recent large-scale Ukrainian drone and missile attacks on Russian airfields, including in the interior of the country. These attacks were almost certainly planned and coordinated with NATO, and represent a further step in the escalating war. The decisions made in Brussels aim to massively expand NATO’s military capacity for exactly this type of escalation—direct warfare against Russia. As the World Socialist Web Site has warned, this is leading toward open war between nuclear powers and threatens nothing less than the annihilation of human civilization. (NATO risks nuclear catastrophe with attack on Russian airports)
The core decision was to adopt a new set of military “capability targets” for the next decade, based on a comprehensive threat assessment aiming to massively expand NATO’s combat readiness. According to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, the NATO alliance is taking a “huge leap forward” to become a “stronger, fairer and more lethal Alliance.”
The objectives include the build-up of large manoeuvre formations, air and missile defences, long-range weapons and logistics infrastructure. Rutte made clear that fulfilling these goals will require unprecedented military spending: “We will need significantly higher defence spending. That underpins everything.”
In fact, the benchmark of spending two percent of GDP on defence, agreed at the NATO summit in Wales in 2014, has been rendered obsolete. Rutte stated bluntly that in the face of Russia’s arms production and the broader global security environment, “2 percent is not enough.” The new target set by NATO stands now at 5 percent. In Brussels Rutte explained that 3.5 percent had to be spent just to achieve the agreed military capabilities and targets. But overall at least 5 percent are needed to prepare for war. He said:
“If a tank is not able to cross a bridge, if our societies are not prepared in case war breaks out, for a whole of society approach, if we are not able to really develop the defense industrial base, then the 3.5 percent is great but then you cannot really defend yourselves… If you spent about 3.5 percent on your core defense, then clearly you have at least to spend … 5 percent on defense issues”.
While some of the European powers prefer to remain rather silent about their commitment to the new goals – given the vast implications and enormous opposition in the working class – German imperialism is particularly aggressive in adopting them. German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) welcomed the new targets and stated that Germany, as Europe’s largest economy, would assume a central role in meeting them. Germany traditionally takes on the second-largest share of NATO’s military burden, and it intends to significantly expand this role. Pistorius announced that the Bundeswehr (armed forces) would fully equip all army divisions and brigades and massively invest in the air force and navy. He described this as a generational “Kraftakt” (herculean effort).
Germany’s planned war budget dwarfs anything in the country’s postwar history. With the €100 billion “special fund” from 2022 and the adoption of an additional 1 trillion fund this year, annual defence budgets are surging. As leading government and opposition politicians call to raise military spending to five percent of GDP, the ruling class is openly preparing for total war. Five percent of Germany’s GDP would amount to around €225 billion annually.
This militarisation has far-reaching implications for the working class. Pistorius left no doubt about who would foot the bill. On public radio, he cynically declared: “This country cannot be defended with welfare benefits and education.” The government is already redirecting funds earmarked for social and environmental purposes toward armaments. The EU, for example, has made leftover Covid recovery funds available for defence spending, cutting into budgets originally intended for climate and digital investment.
The NATO strategy does not only target Russia. Rutte explicitly pointed to a growing bloc of “adversaries”: “Look what is happening between China, North Korea, Iran and Russia...” The war drive is global in scope. NATO’s stated aim is to ensure its forces can fight not only now, but also “in three to five years” against any threat.
This is why NATO is massively increasing industrial arms production, including in Europe, and calling for “extra shifts” and new production lines. The NATO Defence Planning Process now explicitly ties the military build-up to economic restructuring. A new investment law in Germany will speed up procurement and expand industrial capacity. The government is also introducing a new conscription-style “voluntary military service,” modelled on Sweden, to rapidly boost the ranks of the Bundeswehr.
Behind talk of “security” and “defending our way of life” lies a ruthless imperialist agenda. German capitalism is using the Ukraine war to cast off the last restraints it has felt on the use of military force since the fall of the Nazi regime and to re-emerge as Europe’s dominant military power. In autumn 2023, Pistorius stated that Germany must become “ready for war.” CDU leader Friedrich Merz echoed this in his first Bundestag speech as chancellor, declaring: “The Bundeswehr will become the strongest conventional army in Europe.”
This policy, long advocated by the far right, is now the official programme of the entire ruling class. Christian Democrat Johann Wadephul and AfD politicians have long demanded five percent of GDP for defence. Now, this has become government policy, supported by both the CDU and SPD-led ministries.
The German government’s insane march toward war is effectively backed by all major parties. The Greens, once self-proclaimed pacifists, have become the list fervent advocates of militarism, openly applauding the deployment of the Bundeswehr against Russia.
The Left Party criticizes some of the recent measures but only to obscure and safeguard the government’s war agenda, while seeking to contain the widespread public opposition. Yet it voted in favor of the €1 trillion war credits in the Bundesrat and later played a key role in securing Merz’s swift election as Chancellor in the Bundestag.
The consequences of the militarist offensive will be catastrophic. The rearmament agenda means that the ruling class will not only wage war in Europe, but wage war on the social and democratic rights of the working class at home. Just as in the run-up to the First and Second World Wars, the ruling classes in Germany and across Europe and the entire NATO alliance are responding to internal crises and international contradictions by preparing for war and dictatorship.
Workers and youth must draw the necessary conclusions. NATO’s war policy can only be stopped through the independent political mobilisation of the working class across Europe and internationally, directed against the capitalist system that produces war. The urgent task is the building of a socialist anti-war movement that unites workers in every country on the basis of a common internationalist programme.