Freedom of the Riders: The British Empire, United States, and Defense Spending

Charles W. King

For decades now the United States’ European allies have been criticized by some American politicians and policy-makers for failing to maintain their defense spending at 2% of Gross Domestic Product, as stipulated by NATO. These countries are derided as ‘Free Riders’. Some Americans complain about subsiding European nations by taking on their defense burden for them. The United State has in effect taken much of Europe’s defense burden upon itself, but that is not a reason to be critical. Like the Marshall plan, American defense spending was essential for Europe to become a healthy market for American goods after World War Two. The burden of defending themselves from the Soviet Union and Warsaw pact after 1945 could easily have been too cumbersome for Western Europe, and it certainly would have crowded consumer spending out of the economy for defense. The United States has let its European allies flourish under its defensive umbrella for decades and has flourished because of it, and it is not the first superpower to benefit from such an arrangement.

When the Monroe Doctrine was issued in 1823 the United States did not possess the naval strength to enforce it. The US Navy had grown significantly from the original six frigates laid down in 1794, but would still be no match for the naval forces of a European great power like France, Spain, or Great Britain. Throughout much of Europe the doctrine was received with disregard and contempt. Its saving grace was British insistence upon Freedom of the Seas. The nineteenth century was the height of Pax Britannia, and the British economy of was booming as a result of increasing industrialization and trade. Spanish re-conquest of Latin America would have been detrimental to British interests. The United States and its still nascent Navy did not have to invest in enforcing the Monroe Doctrine, because the Royal Navy already was. In a very real way the Monroe Doctrine was an American declaration of an existing British policy. From the War of 1812 to the Spanish American War in 1898 the US was a ‘Free Rider’ on the Royal Navy and British maritime and free trade policy. The British did not implement these policies or invest in the Royal Navy for American benefit. They were beneficial to Great Britain itself.

American policy-makers who are critical of the defense burden that the US bears for its European allies should consider how this spending benefits the United States. Investing in defense abroad makes a war in the American home waters or continent less plausible. The American government spends the money on American made equipment and the training of American personnel, developing domestic industry and increasing readiness in ways that would not be pressing without forward deployed troops. Allied nations who rely on the United States for defense also purchase American made goods and American services. The ability of foreign markets to afford American consumer goods is what made the Dollar the reserve currency of the world for the twentieth century. There may be ‘free riders’ on American defense spending, but that does not mean that it is a waste of money. The British Empire, and the early United States, would not have prospered if not for the Royal Navy and Freedom of the Seas. Investing in ‘free riders’ will protect American prosperity into the twenty first century.