Hard constraints – The supply and demand of NATO in the Indo-Pacific
Analysts and policy-makers increasingly recognize that the Euro-Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific are theatres that are much more interconnected than what the physical distance from one another would imply.For one, China has expanded its global reach, with new military assets and foreign policy instruments that could be used against targets in Europe. As North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg declared in 2019, “there’s no way that NATO will move into the South China Sea, but we have to address the fact that China is coming closer to us” (Ellyatt 2019). Cyber, space, and even missile capabilities give China the wherewithal to unsettle members of the Euro-Atlantic community.