NATO Funding Disparity Persists

European NATO members continue to spend, on average, well under 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defense, according to new figures provided by the Atlantic alliance.

The average for European allies is 1.7 percent, whereas the U.S. GDP allotment in 2008 was 4 percent, NATO says. The U.S. spends by far more per-capita on defense than any other NATO members. In fact, the U.S. last year spent about 44 percent more on defense than all other NATO members combined.

According to NATO, among European members, Greece spent the highest percentage of GDP on defense, with 2.8 percent. France, not a full NATO member, had the highest absolute outlay on defense last year among the European countries, taking over from the United Kingdom, which held that distinction in 2007.

The United States leads in most categories, although Turkey managed to put 27.4 percent of its defense spending into modernization, even ahead of the U.S. level of 27.3 percent.

Greece, by contrast, still spends 74.1 percent of its budget on personnel, the highest proportion within the alliance. The Greek figure is actually an improvement over 2007 levels that approached 80 percent going to personnel costs. The Pentagon's allocation for personnel costs is the lowest within NATO, just below 30 percent of total spending, NATO says.

Officials and government data in Washington often cite a higher GDP rate for the United States, sometimes closer to 5 percent, when all war-fighting-related spending is included in calculations. Defense Department leaders and many conservative analysts have advocated for a 4 percent floor to defense spending in the baseline budget, which does not include paying directly for combat operations in Iraq, Afghanistan elsewhere.