--- title: 'Brexit': Are Security Woes Next? description: Now that Great Britain has made clear it wants to pull back from Europe, will it also trim its defense spending? canonical: https://time.com/4383120/brexit-security-woes/ author: Mark Thompson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-26T21:05:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T22:51:35.581Z article:section: Politics og:title: Does 'Brexit' Mean Security Woes Are Next? og:description: An upcoming NATO summit should offer clues og:url: https://time.com/4383120/brexit-security-woes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf26fe7746f0a0d4d/698899750a4a2260f19ca3b8/brexit-london.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: BRITAIN-EU-REFERENDUM-BREXIT-POLITICS og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Does 'Brexit' Mean Security Woes Are Next? twitter:description: An upcoming NATO summit should offer clues twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf26fe7746f0a0d4d/698899750a4a2260f19ca3b8/brexit-london.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Does 'Brexit' Mean Security Woes Are Next? ## Video: Watch World Leaders React To Brexit [Watch (HLS stream): Watch World Leaders React To Brexit](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/aTBkyAyg.m3u8) (1:47)  _Published 2016-06-24. Public figures around the world respond to the United Kingdom leaving the European Union._ by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Jun 26, 2016 9:05 PM UTC  People walk over Westminster Bridge wrapped in Union flags in London on June 26, 2016. People walk over Westminster Bridge wrapped in Union flags in London on June 26, 2016.Odd Andersen—AFP/Getty Images by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Jun 26, 2016 9:05 PM UTC The comment last spring was startling, coming as it did from NATO’s commander. “Russia and the Assad regime are deliberately weaponizing migration from Syria in an attempt to overwhelm European structures and break European resolve,” U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove, since retired, said of Moscow’s Vladimir Putin and his long-time ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad. Immigration from inside the European Union, as well as the nearly 5 million fleeing Syria’s civil war, no doubt played a role in the U.K.’s historic vote last Thursday to bail out of the E.U. While there were expressions of shock across European capitals as well as Washington, there were half-hidden smiles from inside the Kremlin. That’s because any increase in internal European tensions following Brexit can only benefit Putin’s Russia. “The consequences will be global. They are inevitable,” Putin said following the vote. “They will be both positive and negative.” The vote exposes cracks in Europe that could make it tougher to impose economic sanctions on Russia for its actions in Crimea and Ukraine. “I am concerned about a more fragmented Europe,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday. “But it is important now to look forward and work with leaders in NATO and the European Union to make sure we both strengthen NATO as a platform for European cooperation.” NATO officials had repeatedly declared before the vote that a British departure from the 28-member E.U.—largely an economic and political union—would hurt the continent’s stability, but took pains afterward to declare NATO—a 28-state military alliance—to be the true guarantor of Europe’s security. That’s why the looming North Atlantic summit in Warsaw, starting July 8, will be closely watched. Now that Great Britain has made clear it wants to pull back from Europe, will it also trim its defense spending? The U.K. is one of the handful of European nations spending 2% of its gross domestic product on its military and has been the E.U.’s mightiest military power. “Not only will Britain likely be a weaker ally in the aftermath of Brexit, but Europe will also be feebler,” Kori Schake, a fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, [writes](http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/06/25/brexit-defense-eu/) at _Foreign Policy_. But not everyone concurs. “Brexit, counter-intuitive as it might sound, will likely produce a stronger NATO,” [argues](http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/06/25/europes-loss-is-natos-gain/) ex-NATO chief James Stavridis. But his is a rare voice. “Since World War II, the United States, aided principally by Britain, has worked to reduce the potential for international conflict, with particular success in Europe; encourage democratic governance; promote free markets; and lift billions of people out of poverty,” the New York _Times_ [noted](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/opinion/the-security-consequences-of-brexit.html) in its lead editorial on Sunday. “A crucial brick in that system is now in danger of being removed.” Defense Secretary Ashton Carter spoke Friday with his counterpart, U.K. defense minister Michael Fallon, to stress the two nations’ military resolve despite Brexit. Carter “emphasized that the United States and the United Kingdom will always enjoy a special relationship, one reflected in our close defense ties, which remain a bedrock of U.S. security and foreign policy,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said. Ever since World War II, Washington and London have toasted the “special relationship” that has seen them standing shoulder-to-shoulder on a wide variety of international-security issues. And while leaders in both nations have said Brexit will not change that relationship, the leaders—whose urgings that Britain remain in the U.K. came to naught—could be wrong here as well. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4383120/brexit-security-woes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4383120/brexit-security-woes/"},"headline":"Does 'Brexit' Mean Security Woes Are Next?","datePublished":"2016-06-26T21:05:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T22:51:35.581Z","description":"An upcoming NATO summit should offer clues","url":"https://time.com/4383120/brexit-security-woes/","keywords":["Military","russia","Britain","Vladimir Putin","United Kingdom","Brexit"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf26fe7746f0a0d4d/698899750a4a2260f19ca3b8/brexit-london.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mark Thompson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf26fe7746f0a0d4d/698899750a4a2260f19ca3b8/brexit-london.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"BRITAIN-EU-REFERENDUM-BREXIT-POLITICS","caption":"People walk over Westminster Bridge wrapped in Union flags, towards the Queen Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben) and The Houses of Parliament in central London on June 26, 2016. 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