Long-term poll figures suggest that not only is public confidence in the 29-member alliance in decline, but individual countries' preparedness to assist allies in the event of a military attack by a non-NATO country is too.
Public favourability towards NATO has fallen sharply in the US and major European countries since President Donald Trump moved into the White House, according to a new survey published by the Pew Research Centre.
The number of people who view the bloc positively dropped by at the least 10 percent in the US (from 62 to 52 percent), France (60 to 49 per cent), and Germany (67 to 57 per cent) between 2017 and 2019, the figures suggest. The field work for the 2017 data in the US was carried out straight after Mr Trump's inauguration, between February and April 2017.
In 2019, an average of 53 percent across 16 NATO countries surveyed had a favourable view of the alliance, while 27 percent had a negative sentiment, with Pew Research noting that the views have fluctuated since it first started polling about the military bloc in 2007. While some countries' trust in NATO has increased, in Poland and Ukraine, for instance, many have soured on the North Atlantic Alliance since 2007.
In France, favourability towards NATO dipped from 71% in 2009 to 49% in 2019, whereas in Germany, positive views of the organisation went down by 16 percentage points.
Separately, the study emphasised the reluctance with which member states would…
