In terms of defense spending and planning I do find myself wondering what our collective response would be if the Russians invaded let’s say...Estonia.
Would NATO go to war ?
Until you determine what threats exist and what your planned response to those threats would be (the scenario books) I don’t know how you can effectively allocate spending. We used to have a very clear remit of forward basing US strike aircraft and securing the GIUK gap for anti-submarine operations, now we seem to be more interested in force projection around the world with nuclear subs and carrier strike groups that we can ill-afford. I’m not convinced that is the best option for us.