U.S. allies' burden sharing go far beyond just financial contributions, experts say
Published: 27 Mar. 2025, 12:10
![Randall Schriver, a former senior Pentagon official, speaks during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on March 26, in this photo captured from a livestream on the committee's website. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/03/27/4f0e8535-695d-4597-8b72-77076fc681f2.jpg)
Randall Schriver, a former senior Pentagon official, speaks during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on March 26, in this photo captured from a livestream on the committee's website. [YONHAP]
U.S. allies' "burden sharing" goes far beyond their defense spending to include their provision of access to local military bases and other contributions to help overcome America's geographic constraints in addressing security challenges in the Indo-Pacific, U.S. experts said Wednesday.
Randall Schriver, a former senior Pentagon official, Victor Cha, Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Oriana Skylar Mastro, center fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies attended a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on regional alliances and burden sharing.
The hearing came as U.S. President Donald Trump has called for North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies to increase their defense spending to 5 percent of GDP, adding to speculation that Trump could demand a rise in Seoul's share of the cost for stationing the 28,500-strong U.S. Forces Korea.
"I think too often, burden sharing is scoped down to a single figure, which is how much a country is spending [in terms of] percentage of GDP on defense," Schriver, former assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, said. "It's revealing, but doesn't always tell the whole story."
![Reed Rubinstein, nominee to be legal adviser at the State Department, testifies during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on March 25 in Washington, DC. Rubinstein currently servers as the Senior Vice President at the America First Legal Foundation. [GETTY/AFP/YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/03/27/045ff8cc-4ef5-4e7a-b08e-2fd2f2c6383b.jpg)
Reed Rubinstein, nominee to be legal adviser at the State Department, testifies during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on March 25 in Washington, DC. Rubinstein currently servers as the Senior Vice President at the America First Legal Foundation. [GETTY/AFP/YONHAP]
Mastro echoed his view.
"Burden sharing is often framed in financial terms, but if we take a broader perspective, the contributions that our allies can make goes much beyond defense spending," she said.
Experts enumerated nonfinancial contributions that are crucial to the U.S. goal of ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific, which it thinks has been challenged by an increasingly assertive China. They include "access, basing and overflight" privileges crucial for the U.S. military to maintain a robust presence in the region.
Schriver stressed that strong alliances and partnerships are "the best way to combat this tyranny of time and distance," as he pointed out that China, Russia and North Korea enjoy geographic proximity to regional areas that the United States seeks to safeguard.
He laid out the basis for evaluating allies' burden sharing, including the prospects of their contributions for dealing with regional contingencies if need be.
"We rely on them for access, basing and overflight ... as a distant power ourselves," he said. "We rely on our partners and allies to also play a role in the shaping and the support for a free and open Indo-Pacific, and all that entails, as well as day-to-day activities that uphold deterrence."
Looking back on the history of America's alliance system created over seven decades, Cha said that it has served the United States "well" and now is a "unique aspect of U.S. power."
Noting security challenges from North Korea, China, Russia, Iran and other potential adversaries, Cha said that the United States "cannot do it alone" against those threats.
"We need our alliances in the Indo-Pacific. The United States has 24 persistent bases and access to 20 other sites. By contrast, China has one overseas base," Cha said. "These bases allow for rapid response, successful defense and deterrence."
On burden sharing, Cha said that U.S. allies are much more capable of bearing host-nation costs than they were 50 years ago. But he stressed that any changes in the burden-sharing efforts should avoid "surprises" to give allies the domestic political space needed to sell new arrangements to their public.
![Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, U.S. President Donald Trump's nominee to be ambassador to Israel, testifies during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on March 25 in Washington, DC. Huckabee, the former governor and presidential candidate, answered questions on Israel and its campaign against Hamas. [GETTY/AFP/YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/03/27/d98b8bad-db9b-42c4-bf4b-7b0bab29868c.jpg)
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, U.S. President Donald Trump's nominee to be ambassador to Israel, testifies during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on March 25 in Washington, DC. Huckabee, the former governor and presidential candidate, answered questions on Israel and its campaign against Hamas. [GETTY/AFP/YONHAP]
Cha went on to say that "exponentially" increased allied payments will not be feasible unless they take into account allied contributions outside of the alliance but on behalf of the alliance, such as financial contributions Seoul has made to support a war-ravaged Ukraine.
Mastro underscored the importance of "mission burden sharing" aimed at investing in capabilities to deter China and take on a greater responsibility in contingencies.
"For example, the U.S. might need South Korea to be better positioned to take on responsibilities to counter North Korean hostility during potential conflicts," she said. "In this vein, South Korea should also agree to strategic flexibility for the U.S., meaning that the U.S. can use our forces on the peninsula for off-peninsula contingencies, ie those that involve China."
Meanwhile, Sen. Jim Risch, the committee chair, commended South Korea for its burden-sharing efforts.
"South Korea has done great work here. Its defense spending grew consistently during the Cold War and beyond, always remaining well above 2 percent of GDP," he said. "It now boasts a robust defense industry and is well positioned to work with the U.S. on boosting our shipbuilding capacity."
Yonhap
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.
Standards Board Policy (0/250자)