President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of his former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker to serve as US ambassador to NATO likely signals a confrontational and “bullying” approach to the military alliance he has long criticized, analysts say.
These experts add that this could represent both weaknesses and opportunities for Canada, which is under increasing pressure to meet its defense spending commitments. This pressure is expected to increase under the new Trump administration, whose NATO representative is a relative newcomer to the diplomatic scene who aligns perfectly with his boss’s worldview.
“The appointment of a loyalist with limited foreign policy expertise and experience may signal an intent (by Trump) to continue pushing his more confrontational and unilateral agenda,” Erika Simpson, an assistant professor of international relations at Western University, told Global News in an email.
If Whitaker’s appointment is approved, Simpson said he could bring “more hard-line rhetoric, pressure tactics, and America First tactics that strain the standards of consensus and cooperation in the coalition.”
In a post on social media After Trump’s announcement on Wednesday, Whitaker said he “looks forward to strengthening relations with our NATO allies and standing firm in the face of threats to peace and stability.”
Whitaker is a former U.S. attorney in Iowa who served as acting attorney general between November 2018 and February 2019 when Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference was nearing its end. He was Trump’s first chief of staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, before he was chosen to replace his boss after Sessions was fired over his decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation.
Since then, Whitaker has become a vocal critic of the US Justice Department he once led, especially in defending Trump against the four criminal indictments against him. He has little foreign policy or national security experience, making him relative unknown to many in American security circles.
His nomination as NATO ambassador still needs approval by the US Senate. If approved, it would set a precedent in the era of previous chiefs of ambassadors who have years of diplomatic, political or military credentials.
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But David Welch, a political science professor at the University of Waterloo who studies foreign policy, says Whitaker’s lack of clear qualifications for the job “fits a pattern” of Trump’s Cabinet nominations that prioritize “cronyism” and people “he believes he can control.” “
“He is not in a position to give qualified advice to Trump on NATO matters,” he said in an interview. “That would be a key function of a NATO ambassador, which is to report to the commander and advise him. He will not be able to do that.
Trump’s first NATO ambassador, former US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison from Texas, was an advocate for the alliance during and after her tenure, including the necessity of US leadership within it. Although she had no diplomatic experience, she was heavily involved in foreign policy matters in the Senate.
Trump has for years targeted NATO and members who do not meet the alliance’s standard of spending at least 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense. Earlier this year, Trump said that when he was president, he warned NATO allies that he would “encourage” Russia to “do whatever they want” to “delinquent” countries.
Former Trump administration officials, including his former national security adviser John Bolton, said Trump might push to withdraw the United States from the alliance.
Whitaker’s appointment at least indicates that Trump “will change (America’s) commitment to NATO,” Stephen Lammy, professor emeritus of international relations at the University of Southern California, said in an email.
“Whitaker is not appointed to lead a renewed commitment to NATO and Ukraine,” he wrote. He added that “Trump does not like spending and, more importantly, the Article 5 commitment” to mutual defense in the event of an attack on any member.
In an interview with Fox News During the 2019 NATO summit, Whitaker criticized alliance members who “took advantage of the United States” by not meeting NATO standards, which he said allowed those countries to “support socialized medicine and other experiments.”
Although he recognized that the United States, as a major democratic military superpower, “will always have to spend more than its fair share to make sure that democracy and freedom are defended around the world,” this does not mean at the same time that the people we miss the most “vulnerable.” We have to conform to some sort of ride on our coattails.
He said Trump, who was president at the time, was “executing this vision” within the coalition.
NATO says Twenty-three member states currently meet the 2% GDP target, up from just three in 2014. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has spurred additional military spending by several European members, and Sweden and Finland joined the pact in the war’s aftermath.
Biden has taken credit for pushing allies to increase their defense spending, as has Trump.
The United States has long spent more than the NATO benchmark, and currently spends 3.38 percent of its GDP on defense.
Canada is one of only eight members that do not meet the 2 per cent threshold. The updated defense policy forecast expects spending to rise from 1.37 percent of GDP currently to 1.76 percent by 2030.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged this year that Canada’s defense spending would reach 2 per cent by 2032, although the parliamentary budget officer said last month that the government’s plan to achieve that was unclear.
While that could cause friction with NATO and future Ambassador Whitaker, Welch said Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, was a qualified choice who could help mitigate diplomatic vulnerabilities between the two countries.
She added that if Whitaker is confirmed and pushes Trump’s tactics, Simpson said it would require a strong response from NATO members.
“Canada has long valued the Alliance’s well-established processes and diplomatic decorum, so I hope we will see polite responses from Canada as a founding NATO ally, and not a lot of ‘I’m sorry,’” she wrote.
&Copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
