Bangladesh, June 27 -- The recent NATO summit in The Hague may have been billed as a pivotal moment for Euro-Atlantic unity, but in practice, it bore more resemblance to an overproduced humiliation ritual than a coherent gathering of strategic minds. With US President Donald Trump at the center of the spectacle, the alliances supposed consensus morphed into a theater of coercion and obsequiousness, capped by a jaw-dropping agreement: a commitment by NATO members to ramp up defense spending to 5% of GDP.

For those keeping score, this marks a doubling – even a tripling – of prior targets. When Trump first took office in 2017, he berated European nations for not meeting the existing 2% guideline. Fast forward to 2025, and that c...