Rasmussen: NATO Is 'Disintegrating' — Former Secretary General Proposes Alternative Coalition of Willing Nations

Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen — who served from 2009 to 2014 and previously served as Danish Prime Minister — declared on May 9, 2026 that the alliance is in a state of 'disintegration' and that the situation is 'dangerous.' Rasmussen stated: 'What we are witnessing now is the disintegration of NATO, and this is dangerous. Trump has sown so much doubt about his commitment to Article 5 and the defense of Europe that there can only be one conclusion for Europeans: we must stand on our own feet.' He cited two specific triggers as having crossed a threshold of irreversibility: the May 1 announcement of 5,000-troop withdrawal from Germany and the cancellation of the Tomahawk and hypersonic missile deployment to Germany that had been planned under the Biden administration. Rasmussen proposed a structural alternative: a 'coalition of the willing' to replace or supplement NATO's collective defense guarantees. The proposed coalition would include only nations meeting 5% GDP defense spending, would commit to Article 5-equivalent mutual defense guarantees, and would operate under decision rules preventing single-member vetoes — a feature targeting both Turkey's historical obstruction and Hungary's pro-Moscow stance. Rasmussen's declaration came the day after former US Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder published his 'something fundamental has broken' assessment, amplifying the emerging consensus among former senior alliance officials that the political rupture is structural and not merely cyclical. His 'disintegration' language represents a significant escalation from the 'stress-testing' and 'crisis' framing that had dominated analysis since 2017.