Cleveland - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s suggestion that the United States might abandon its NATO treaty commitments has upended decades of American foreign policy dogma and doctrine in both parties. It has created a domestic furor and fueled angst not only across Europe but in Asia, where Trump’s complaints about allies not paying their own way have also resonated.

Trump’s mere musing that he would review allies’ financial contributions — in this case those owed by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — before acting under NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense clause if they were attacked by Russia could rock the foundations of the security architecture that has underpinned European stability since the end of World War II.

That possibility, and the global instability that would likely follow, is not something NATO leaders or their nervous citizens will countenance lightly, particularly since they responded, without question, under Article 5 when the United States was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001.

U.S. administrations have complained, often bitterly, that many NATO members are not footing their share of the alliance’s bills. The U.S. accounts for more than 70 percent of all NATO defense spending. Only four other allies — Britain, Estonia, Greece and Poland — meet the minimum 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense that NATO requires. But Trump’s floating the idea that that spending target would be a prerequisite for the U.S. to defend them is an abrupt break for the most powerful member of NATO, which styles itself as the most successful military alliance in world history.... Read More: VIN