Corgan in NBC News on NATO Financial Obligations
Michael Corgan, Associate Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, was recently interviewed on why North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) nations don’t always fulfill their financial obligations to the military alliance.
Corgan was quoted in a July 29, 2016 article by NBC News entitled “Five Reasons Why NATO Nations Don’t Always Pay Their Fair Share.”
From the text of the article:
Michael Corgan, an associate professor of international relations at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, argues that health and retirement benefits promised to Europe’s aging population, combined with high taxes, would make it very difficult for such countries to spend much more on defense without enacting policies that would be difficult for their citizens to swallow.
“Virtually no democratically elected government could survive either situation,” Corgan told NBC News.
Corgan argues, however, that even if more NATO members do reach that spending target, their strategic locations are of better value than any military capabilities they could provide by spending more. Citing Iceland as an example, Corgan notes that the U.S. was the one who urged that the island nation become a NATO member in 1949 because of its strategic location, even as other countries questioned why NATO should admit a country without a military for membership status.
Affiliated with Boston University since 1985, Prof. Corgan has also served as Chairman of the Department of Naval Science. He has participated in extensive government service in political and military planning (especially NATO). He also is a regularly appearing media analyst on security and political affairs for many Icelandic and Boston media outlets. Learn more about him here.