The Libertarian Party has reiterated its calls for the United States to formally withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, with National Chair Steven Nekhaila stating this week that the country gains “no advantage to its sovereignty, economy, or security” by remaining a member.
In December 9 remarks shared on the party’s social media accounts, Nekhaila, speaking on behalf of the Libertarian National Committee, said NATO has become “a vehicle for nuclear brinksmanship and a powder keg for World War Three,” arguing that the alliance no longer reflects the geopolitical conditions under which it was created. He called the organization a “Cold War relic” that has expanded “ever eastward” despite earlier assurances to the contrary, and now finds itself “deeply entangled in the Ukraine and Russia conflict.”
This is not the first time the Libertarian Party has publicly urged withdrawal from NATO. The party most recently issued a similar statement in early 2022 in response to rising hostilities between Russia and Ukraine. Nekhaila’s latest remarks come as Republican Rep. Thomas Massie introduced HR 6508, which would direct President Trump to formally notify NATO of a U.S. withdrawal under Article 13 of the North Atlantic Treaty.
Massie’s proposed legislation asserts that the alliance’s Cold War mission no longer aligns with current U.S. interests and that European member states are capable of providing for their own defense. It further prohibits the use of taxpayer funds for NATO’s common budgets. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah has introduced companion legislation in the Senate.
“The United States gains no advantage to its sovereignty, economy, or security by remaining in NATO,” Nekhaila stated. “We are the largest funder, the largest enforcer, and the largest liability in any Article 5 scenario. Europe relies on American taxpayers while escalating rhetoric that Americans would be forced to back with their lives.”
Nekhaila invoked the nation’s founders, stating they warned against entangling alliances for situations of this kind. He added that America should not be “the backstop of foreign ambitions or the piggybank of perpetual militarism,” and urged ending NATO, making moves to deescalate global tensions, and returning to a foreign policy “that puts American peace and prosperity first.”
NATO is a kind of international Articles of Confederation. It’s a mutual defense pact in which each state retains its sovereignty, and the financial support is provided by the member states’ commitment to maintaining a certain level of military spending, and not by centralized taxation.
The US is certainly free to withdraw, if it feels that it no longer meets its security needs. But, I think that a case can be made that it still does. Russia’s (or more precisely, Putin’s) imperialist renewal challenges the US in a number of ways, particularly in the Arctic Ocean, that support a multi-national response.
And as for the Eastern expansion, did anyone ever ask what the East Europeans themselves wanted for their security? It seems they decided on their own that joining NATO was their best security option. It retrospect, that seems to have been a wise choice for them.
Nekhalia: “It was designed as a temporary alliance against the Soviet Union, yet it expanded ever eastward despite repeated assurances that it would not.”
He’s wrong. It is a Russian-perpetuated myth that there were assurances that NATO would not expand eastward. The actual agreement about non-expansion was into the former East Germany. That’s all. To my deep disappointment, the LP has been a mouthpiece for Russian propaganda for years now.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/did-nato-promise-not-to-enlarge-gorbachev-says-no/
No. The Libertarian position is expand NATO to 90th parallel, and create sister Pacific group doing the same. It’s the kiddie table for Bill of Rights dissemination, like the UN is US kindergarten. NATO concept was developed by my grandfather in 1919. ‘Cold War Relic’ –no. That’s Red BS, along with anti-UN (my great-grandfather’s project) and abandon Taiwan (which is rightfully US territory) rhetoric.
There was a withdrawalism thing at the beginning of USLP when things looked bleak, and it should always like anything else be reviewed periodically, but it was basically pushed by commie plants in conservatarian clothing. Working with Commieservative plants or dupes like Massie or De Santis, of the era, basically. So it was removed.
Basically more NATO at no tax or draft, freer trade.
National LP’s are designed on localism to STFU on transnational politics besides free trade, no drafts, eliminate tax and regulation, ally with USA and adopt Bill of Rights, get people into localist sister-cities programs if they have an international yen. LNC should stick to doing what it is ignoring–help people in getting 30+ L/ libertarians in local office per million population, Florida-style direct democracy in each state, spread the Pledge.
RE: “The Libertarian Party has reiterated its calls for the United States to formally withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, with National Chair Steven Nekhaila stating this week that the country gains “no advantage to its sovereignty, economy, or security” by remaining a member.
In December 9 remarks shared on the party’s social media accounts, Nekhaila, speaking on behalf of the Libertarian National Committee, said NATO has become “a vehicle for nuclear brinksmanship and a powder keg for World War Three,” arguing that the alliance no longer reflects the geopolitical conditions under which it was created. He called the organization a “Cold War relic” that has expanded “ever eastward” despite earlier assurances to the contrary, and now finds itself “deeply entangled in the Ukraine and Russia conflict.”
This is not the first time the Libertarian Party has publicly urged withdrawal from NATO. The party most recently issued a similar statement in early 2022 in response to rising hostilities between Russia and Ukraine. Nekhaila’s latest remarks come as Republican Rep. Thomas Massie introduced HR 6508, which would direct President Trump to formally notify NATO of a U.S. withdrawal under Article 13 of the North Atlantic Treaty. “