Future Retirement Success
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks

Future Retirement Success

Investing

No Straight Comparison But a Promising Direction for Ukraine Assistance

by September 8, 2023
September 8, 2023
No Straight Comparison But a Promising Direction for Ukraine Assistance

Jordan Cohen and Jonathan Ellis Allen

The Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German think tank, has released its newest update to the Ukraine Support Tracker. This is a valuable resource that visualizes support to Ukraine from across the globe. In the latest report, Kiel claims that, based on the latest announcements, the European Union and individual European countries have committed to send double the assistance to Ukraine that the United States has.

This commitment by the Europeans is good for their security and it is also good for U.S. taxpayers who, since 2022, have shouldered the largest percentage of aid to Ukraine.

However, the main issue with this finding is that Kiel compares European multiyear commitments to single‐​year U.S. commitments. In fact, the United States does not conduct multiyear arms transfers, especially when it comes to security assistance, like Europe. This is for a few reasons.

First, U.S. procurement of multiyear weapons contracts is rare and bureaucratic. According to 10 U.S.C. 3501, the United States can only legally conduct multiyear procurement of weapons under seven conditions, most of which relate to when having a multiyear contract will result in significant savings, that the cost and need for the weapon will remain the same, and that doing so will promote U.S. national security.

(Getty Images)

Finally, this can only occur when the Department of Defense receives congressional approval. Even though the 2023 and 2024 National Defense Authorization Acts allow for multiyear procurement for certain munitions to help restock U.S. munitions depots depleted since the start of the Ukraine war, the recency and limited dollar amounts authorized mean any multiyear commitments to Ukraine likely will not come for a number of years.

Second, the United States has delivered much of this aid through a mechanism known as the Presidential Drawdown Authority. This allows the United States to take up to $11 billion of existing weapons from U.S. stockpiles in any fiscal year and transfer them to a crisis situation. These weapons, therefore, can only be sent on a yearly basis.

There is no legal mechanism that Congress or the executive branch can enact that allows for multiyear drawdowns. This lack of a legal mechanism for drawdowns also holds for many other U.S. security assistance programs.

The Kiel report also misses distinction on certain other differences. For example, the report shows the differences between assistance delivered and assistance committed, but not always clearly.

Moreover, the report claims that, in terms of percent GDP, Norway is the top contributor. However, that includes all multiyear deals, compared to just one year of GDP. Doing so once again draws a miscomparison and fails to account for the still unknown future U.S. commitments.

In actual aid delivered, the United States still edges out the EU and its member states, but Europe is finally catching up. So far, the United States has delivered 69.48 billion euros. The EU and its members have delivered 69.08 billion euros, but the Kiel report includes the additional 62.66 billion euros committed over the next four to five years as well.

Given the consistency of U.S. commitments since the war began, it is more than likely that there will continue to be more commitments every year.

Fortunately, what the report does show is that Europe is stepping up its commitments to Ukraine. In fact, the EU and all European countries (not just EU members) have delivered 83.62 billion euros, some of which are part of a 156 billion euros multiyear commitment. This is a promising sign that Europe is paying more to defend itself. But it is not time to compare the apples of Washington’s single‐​year commitments and the oranges of Europe’s multiyear commitments.

0
FacebookTwitterGoogle +Pinterest
previous post
Tim Scott suggests rivals for 2024 GOP nomination are planting stories about his unmarried status
next post
Friday Feature: Streams of Hope Christian School

You may also like

Taiwan Takes Step in Right Direction with Longer...

January 26, 2024

New Data Show Migrants Were More Likely to...

November 2, 2023

Senate Report Highlighting Bias in Online Services Shows...

May 1, 2024

Reflections on My Visit to Fudan University After...

October 28, 2024

Moving Fast, Breaking Things, and the Oath of...

February 5, 2025

Withdrawing from the WHO: A Chance to Rethink...

January 22, 2025

Henry Kissinger as ‘The Man Who Loved Power’

December 4, 2023

Unfortunately, as I Warned Lawmakers in March, We...

December 28, 2023

Record Student Visa Denials Before Trump: 41 Percent...

May 30, 2025

Trump’s New Immigration Ban: An Arbitrary, Discriminatory Legal...

March 14, 2025

    Get free access to all of the retirement secrets and income strategies from our experts! or Join The Exclusive Subscription Today And Get the Premium Articles Acess for Free

    By opting in you agree to receive emails from us and our affiliates. Your information is secure and your privacy is protected.

    Recent Posts

    • Harmony Squad: Supreme Court Issues Six Unanimous Decisions

      June 5, 2025
    • Quick Login to AmourFactory: A Beginner’s Guide

      June 5, 2025
    • Disabling Trump’s “Tariff Button”

      June 5, 2025
    • ‘Sick puppy’ Tim Walz should never have been on Dems’ 2024 ticket, Trump says

      June 5, 2025
    • Federal judge orders Trump to restore funding to Clinton-era agency gutted by DOGE

      June 5, 2025
    • Musk says Trump would have lost 2024 election without him as ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ feud continues

      June 5, 2025

    Categories

    • Business (8,149)
    • Investing (2,011)
    • Politics (15,535)
    • Stocks (3,128)
    • About us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions

    Disclaimer: futureretirementsuccess.com, its managers, its employees, and assigns (collectively “The Company”) do not make any guarantee or warranty about what is advertised above. Information provided by this website is for research purposes only and should not be considered as personalized financial advice. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation. Any investments recommended here should be taken into consideration only after consulting with your investment advisor and after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

    Copyright © 2025 futureretirementsuccess.com | All Rights Reserved