Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- July 12, 2018

US President Donald Trump looks at British Prime Minister Theresa May during a dinner in Brussels on July 11, 2018. NATO leaders gathered in Brussels on July 11 for a two-day summit. Photo: AFP/Geert Vanden Wijngaert

Uri Friedman, The Atlantic: Trump vs. NATO: It's Not Just About the Money

The president’s emphasis on spending obscures a much deeper skepticism of alliances.

On Thursday, the president of the United States threw into crisis mode the military alliance America has led since the aftermath of World War II, reportedly threatening his fellow NATO leaders in an emergency meeting that if each country didn’t start spending at least 2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense by January, he would “do his own thing.”

“What good is NATO,” Donald Trump had asked the day before, while attending a meeting of the alliance in Brussels, if Germany is buying billions of dollars worth of gas and becoming more dependent on energy from Russia, the very country NATO is designed to deter? “The U.S. is paying for Europe’s protection, then loses billions on Trade,” he tweeted.

But while Trump couched his criticism in terms of dollars and cents, it’s actually not, to quote Jessie J, about the money—at least not entirely. It’s fundamentally about his genuinely radical way of thinking about allies.

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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- July 12, 2018

Trump's Strategy to Get NATO to Spend More Is Working—but Will It in the Long Run? -- Raymond Kuo, National Interest

NATO’s problem is that Europeans won’t fight -- Spengler, Asia times

As Trump says Putin 'not my enemy', skeptics in U.S. see danger -- Patricia Zengerle and John Walcott, Reuters

Here Is What Trump Can Gain from Meeting with Putin -- Lawrence J. Korb, National Interest

Don’t Give Russia the Gift of Extending New START -- Matthew R. Costlow, Defense One

What’s Missing From Kim Jong Un’s ‘Very Nice Note’ to Trump -- Uri Friedman, The Atlantic

Why Higher Oil Prices Won’t Save Venezuela -- Frida Ghitis, WPR

Oil bulls beware: Saudis can keep crude anchored near $70, Barclays says -- Tom DiChristopher, CNBC

Germany Lines Up with China in Trade War -- David P. Goldman, PJ Media

Trade War With China Exposes U.S. Mineral Import Problem -- Jude Clemente, Forbes

How Rare Earths Could Be Crucial in a U.S.-China Trade War -- A. Stevenson, NYT

China relies more heavily on mineral imports -- Zhang Hui, Global Times

China, the U.S. and the Race for Space -- Malcolm Davis, RCD

How Development Finance Is Changing Geopolitics -- Jeff Goodson, Stratfor

Increasing Economic Power as an Instrument of National Power -- Michael Padgett, John Kummer & Brent Ramsey, RCD