The Two NATOs

When the NATO defense ministers get together in Brussels on Wednesday for a two day meeting, they will also discuss the ever present topic of defense spending. According to NATO's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, more member countries are on track to meet the NATO minimum spending goal of 2 percent of their GDP.

However, NATO's own figures show that the United States remains the defense hegemon within the organization. On the one hand, American defense spending has dropped compared to 2010, but Canada and NATO's European members taken together have not increased their spending in return until 2017.