Pew Research study: Western Europeans wary of NATO's capability

WASHINGTON, June 10 (UPI) -- Western Europeans citizens fear NATO is not prepared to stop a hypothetical Russian military advance, a survey released Wednesday indicates.

The Pew Global Attitudes Project, a report from the well-regarded Pew Research Center of Washington, suggests many in some European countries are reluctant to support NATO's collective defense policy, if Russia attacked a NATO member. Fewer than half of respondents in Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Britain supported the policy, in large part because they doubted its success. Of the eight nations surveyed, respondents in the United States were most willing to use military force if a NATO country was attacked; 56 percent were in favor and 37 percent opposed the action. Germany had the most doubtful respondents, with 38 percent in favor and 58 percent opposed.

The poll comes at a time when Europeans, mindful of Russia's incursions in Crimea and Ukraine, are worried about future Russian military advances. The United States has long been critical of other NATO nations who, the United States believes, dedicate an inadequate amount of their gross domestic product to defense; few members spend more than two percent of their budgets on defense.

"We can't defend ourselves by ourselves," Latvian Defense Minister and President-elect Raimonds Vejonis said last month. "Russia is provoking us all the time. They are checking our readiness to react to any test of our borders."

Latvia, with neighbors Estonia and Lithuania, each a former Soviet republic, joined NATO for the specific need for protection from Russia.

To the question "If Russia got into a serious military conflict with one of its neighboring countries which is a NATO ally, should our country use force to defend it?" only 48 percent on respondents in European countries answered in the affirmative.