The Three Per Cent Solution and the Future of NATO

Alexander Haig's uncertainty about NATO's aim of increasing defense spending by three percent annually (beyond inflation) may have been influenced by this study, with which he was associated. Well-written despite its committee authorship, it recounts the story of the three-percent goal during 1977-80. The study shows how an imaginative political symbol, which for a time led to real defense increases and alliance cohesion, is now seen as too little, too late by Washington and too generous by Bonn, thereby becoming a divisive issue.