World Military Spending
Author and Page information
- This page: http://www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending.
- To print all information e.g. expanded side notes, shows alternative links, use the print version:
Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes … known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
— James Madison, Political Observations, 1795
This web page has the following sub-sections:
World Military Spending
Global military expenditure stands at over $1.46 trillion in annual expenditure at current prices for 2008, and has been rising in recent years.
Constant 2005 dollar values are used for comparing past years, where the the 2008 spending amount is over $1.2 trillion:
(1991 figures are unavailable.)
Summarizing some key details from chapter 5 of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)’s 2009 Year Book on Armaments, Disarmament and International Security for 2008:
- World military expenditure in 2008 is estimated to have reached $1.464 trillion in current dollars (just over $1.2 trillion in 2005 constant dollars, as per above graph);
- This represents a 4 per cent increase in real terms since 2007 and a 45 per cent increase over the 10-year period since 1999;
- This corresponds to 2.4 per cent of world gross domestic product (GDP), or $217 for each person in the world;
- The USA with its massive spending budget, is the principal determinant of the current world trend, and its military expenditure now accounts for just under half of the world total, at 41.5% of the world total;
SIPRI has commented in the past on the increasing concentration of military expenditure, i.e. that a small number of countries spend the largest sums. This trend carries on into 2008 spending. For example,
- The 15 countries with the highest spending account for over 81% of the total;
- The USA is responsible for 41.5 per cent of the world total, distantly followed by the China (5.8% of world share), France (4.5%), UK (4.5%), and Russia (4%):
Military spending is concentrated in North America, Europe, and increasingly, Asia:
SIPRI also adds that recently more countries have increased their military spending. Factors include
- Foreign policy objectives
- Real or perceived threats
- Armed conflict and policies to contribute to multilateral peacekeeping operations
- Availability of economic resources
The last point refers to rapidly developing nations like China and India that have seen their economies boom in recent years. In addition, high and rising world market prices for minerals and fossil fuels (at least until recently) have also enabled some nations to spend more on their militaries.
China, for the first time, ranked number 2 in spending in 2008.
In their earlier 2006 report SIPRI noted that, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Russia and Saudi Arabia have been able to increase spending because of increased oil and gas revenues, while Chile and Peru’s increases are resource-driven, “because their military spending is linked by law to profits from the exploitation of key natural resources.”
Also, “China and India, the world’s two emerging economic powers, are demonstrating a sustained increase in their military expenditure and contribute to the growth in world military spending. In absolute terms their current spending is only a fraction of the USA’s. Their increases are largely commensurate with their economic growth.”
The military expenditure database from SIPRI also shows that while percentage increases over the previous decade may be large for some nations, their overall spending amounts may be varied.
(See also this summary of trends, also from SIPRI.)
The latest figures SIPRI uses are from 2008, and where necessary (e.g. China and Russia), include estimates. These figures also do not reflect the full effect of the global financial crisis, the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s, which future figures will likely reflect.
Spending for peace vs spending for war
In a similar report from 2004, the SIPRI authors also noted that, “There is a large gap between what countries are prepared to allocate for military means to provide security and maintain their global and regional power status, on the one hand, and to alleviate poverty and promote economic development, on the other.”
Indeed, compare the military spending with the entire budget of the United Nations:
The United Nations and all its agencies and funds spend about $27 billion each year, or about $4 for each of the world’s inhabitants. This is a very small sum compared to most government budgets and it is just a tiny fraction of the world’s military spending. Yet for nearly two decades, the UN has faced a financial difficulties and it has been forced to cut back on important programs in all areas. Many member states have not paid their full dues and have cut their donations to the UN’s voluntary funds. As of May 31, 2009, members’ arrears to the Regular Budget topped $1282 million, of which the United States alone owed $857 million (67% of the regular budget arrears).
— UN Financial Crisis, Global Policy Forum (accessed September 13, 2009)
The UN was created after World War II with leading efforts by the United States and key allies.
- The UN was set up to be committed to preserving peace through international cooperation and collective security.
- Yet, the UN’s entire budget is just a tiny fraction of the world’s military expenditure, approximately 1.8%
- While the UN is not perfect and has many internal issues that need addressing, it is revealing that the world can spend so much on their military but contribute so little to the goals of global security, international cooperation and peace.
- As well as the above links, for more about the United Nations, see the following:
- This web site’s section on the United Nations and Development looks at its role in fighting poverty and other issues, plus some of the problems it faces.
- The United Nations web site
At the current level of spending (for 2008), it would take just a handful of years for the world’s donor countries to cover their entire aid shortfall, of over $3.6 trillion in promised official aid since 1970, more than 35 years ago.
Unfortunately, however, as the BBC notes, poverty fuels violence and defense spending has a tendency to rise during times of economic hardship. The global financial crisis is potentially ushering in enormous economic hardship around the world.
At a time when a deep economic recession is causing much turbulence in the civilian world … defense giants such as Boeing and EADS, or Finmeccanica and Northrop Grumman, are enjoying a reliable and growing revenue stream from countries eager to increase their military might.
Both geopolitical hostilities and domestic violence tend to flare up during downturns.
…
Shareholders and employees in the aerospace and defense industry are clearly the ones who benefit most from growing defense spending.
Defense companies, whose main task is to aid governments’ efforts to defend or acquire territory, routinely highlight their capacity to contribute to economic growth and to provide employment.
Indeed, some $2.4 trillion (£1.5tr), or 4.4%, of the global economy “is dependent on violence”, according to the Global Peace Index, referring to “industries that create or manage violence” — or the defense industry.
…
Military might delivers geopolitical supremacy, but peace delivers economic prosperity and stability.
And that, the report insists, is what is good for business.
— Jorn Madslien, The purchasing power of peace, BBC, June 3, 2009
The Global Peace Index that the BBC is referring to is an attempt to quantify the difficult-to-define value of peace and rank countries based on over 20 indicators using both quantitative data and qualitative scores from a range of sources. Here is a summary chart from their latest report:
Global Peace Index 2009 attempts to rank nations on various indicators of peace. Most countries are not considered peaceful, unfortunately.
(The top ranking nations on the global peace index were, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Austria, Sweden, Japan, Canada, Finland, and Slovenia. It is worth looking at the report for the full list of indicators used, which cover a mixture of internal and external factors, weighted in various ways.)
US Military Spending
The United States has unquestionably been the most formidable military power in recent years. Its spending levels, as noted earlier, is the principle determinant of world military spending and is therefore worth looking at further.
Generally, US military spending has been on the rise. Recent increases are attributed to the so-called War on Terror and the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions, but it had also been rising before that.
For example, Christopher Hellman, an expert on military budget analysis notes in The Runaway Military Budget: An Analysis 
Travis Sharp, from the Center for Arms Control provides spending figures from 2000 to the requested figures for 2010 shown here:
Overall spending
Defense budget vs War spending
The decline seen in recent years above are due to a number of factors:
- Iraq war reduction and redeployment to Afghanistan
- 2010 figures are preliminary as of writing, not including nuclear weapons programs
- The global financial crisis, affecting all nations, is making governments rethink some military spending.
Nonetheless, compared to the rest of the world, these numbers have long been described as “staggering.”
In Context: US Military Spending Versus Rest of the World
When the US Fiscal Year 2009 budget request for military spending came out in early 2008, Travis Sharp and Christopher Hellman (mentioned earlier) projected the spending of other nations planned for 2008 thus allowing comparison between US military spending and the rest of the world:
Note that the sources for world military spending is different to SIPRI, used above. As well as combining war supplemental spending to regular US military spending, other numbers and estimates will differ to graphs and charts shown earlier. See sources for further information.
Pie chart
Top spenders ranked (and sources)
| Country | Dollars (billions) | % of total | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
Source: U.S. Military Spending vs. the World, Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, February 22, 2008 Notes:
If you are viewing this table on another site, please see http://www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending for further details. | |||
| United States |  711 | 48.28% | 1 |
| China | 121.9 | 8.28% | 2 |
| Russia | 70 | 4.75% | 3 |
| United Kingdom | 55.4 | 3.76% | 4 |
| France | 54 | 3.67% | 5 |
| Japan | 41.1 | 2.79% | 6 |
| Germany | 37.8 | 2.57% | 7 |
| Italy | 30.6 | 2.08% | 8 |
| Saudi Arabia | 29.5 | 2.00% | 9 |
| South Korea | 24.6 | 1.67% | 10 |
| India | 22.4 | 1.52% | 11 |
| Australia | 17.2 | 1.17% | 12 |
| Brazil | 16.2 | 1.10% | 13 |
| Canada | 15 | 1.02% | 14 |
| Spain | 14.4 | 0.98% | 15 |
| Turkey | 11.6 | 0.79% | 16 |
| Israel | 11 | 0.75% | 17 |
| Netherlands | 9.9 | 0.67% | 18 |
| United Arab Emirates | 9.5 | 0.65% | 19 |
| Taiwan | 7.7 | 0.52% | 20 |
| Greece | 7.3 | 0.50% | 21 |
| Iran | 7.2 | 0.49% | 22 |
| Myanmar | 6.9 | 0.47% | 23 |
| Singapore | 6.3 | 0.43% | 24 |
| Poland | 6.2 | 0.42% | 25 |
| Sweden | 5.8 | 0.39% | 26 |
| Colombia | 5.4 | 0.37% | 27 |
| Chile | 4.7 | 0.32% | 28 |
| Belgium | 4.4 | 0.30% | 29 |
| Egypt | 4.3 | 0.29% | 30 |
| Pakistan | 4.2 | 0.29% | 31 |
| Denmark | 3.9 | 0.26% | 32 |
| Indonesia | 3.6 | 0.24% | 33 |
| Switzerland | 3.5 | 0.24% | 34 |
| Kuwait | 3.5 | 0.24% | 35 |
| South Africa | 3.5 | 0.24% | 36 |
| Oman | 3.3 | 0.22% | 37 |
| Malaysia | 3.2 | 0.22% | 38 |
| Mexico | 3.2 | 0.22% | 39 |
| Portugal | 3.1 | 0.21% | 40 |
| Algeria | 3.1 | 0.21% | 41 |
| Finland | 2.8 | 0.19% | 42 |
| Austria | 2.6 | 0.18% | 43 |
| Venezuela | 2.6 | 0.18% | 44 |
| Czech Republic | 2.5 | 0.17% | 45 |
| Romania | 2.3 | 0.16% | 46 |
| Qatar | 2.3 | 0.16% | 47 |
| Thailand | 2.3 | 0.16% | 48 |
| Morocco | 2.2 | 0.15% | 49 |
| Argentina | 1.9 | 0.13% | 50 |
| Ukraine | 1.7 | 0.12% | 51 |
| Cuba | 1.7 | 0.12% | 52 |
| Angola | 1.6 | 0.11% | 53 |
| New Zealand | 1.5 | 0.10% | 54 |
| Hungary | 1.3 | 0.09% | 55 |
| Ireland | 1.1 | 0.07% | 56 |
| Jordan | 1.1 | 0.07% | 57 |
| Peru | 1.1 | 0.07% | 58 |
| North Korea | n/a | n/a | 59 |
| Global Total (not all countries shown): 1,472.7 | 100% | n/a | |
Why does the US number seem so high when the budget announced $517.9 for the Department of Defense?
Unfortunately, the budget numbers can be a bit confusing. For example, the Fiscal Year budget requests for US military spending do not include combat figures (which are supplemental requests that Congress approves separately). The budget for nuclear weapons falls under the Department of Energy, and for the 2009 request, was about $29 billion.
The cost of war (Iraq and Afghanistan) is estimated to be about $170 billion for the 2009 spending alone. Christopher Hellman and Travis Sharp also discuss the US fiscal year 2009 Pentagon spending request and note that “Congress has already approved nearly $700 billion in supplemental funding for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and an additional $126 billion in FY'08 war funding is still pending before the House and Senate.”
Furthermore, other costs such as care for veterans, health care, military training/aid, secret operations, may fall under other departments or be counted separately.
The frustration of confusing numbers seemed to hit a raw nerve for the Center for Defense Information, concluding
The articles that newspapers all over the country publish today will be filled with [military spending] numbers to the first decimal point; they will seem precise. Few of them will be accurate; many will be incomplete, some will be both. Worse, few of us will be able to tell what numbers are too high, which are too low, and which are so riddled with gimmicks to make them lose real meaning.
— Winslow T. Wheeler, What Do the Pentagon’s Numbers Really Mean? The Chaos in America’s Vast Security Budget, Center for Defense Information, February 4, 2008
Commenting on the earlier data, Chris Hellman, noted that when adjusted for inflation the request for 2007 together with that needed for nuclear weapons the 2007 spending request exceeds the average amount spent by the Pentagon during the Cold War, for a military that is one-third smaller than it was just over a decade ago.
Generally, compared to Cold War levels, the amount of military spending and expenditure in most nations has been reduced. For example, global military spending declined from $1.2 trillion in 1985 to $809 billion in 1998, though since 2005 has risen to over $1 trillion again. The United States’ spending, up to 2009 requests may have be reduced compared to the Cold War era but is still close to Cold War levels.
In Context: US military budget vs. other US priorities
Supporters of America’s high military expenditure often argue that using raw dollars is not a fair measure, but that instead it should be per capita or as percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and even then the spending numbers miss out the fact that US provides global stability with its high spending and allows other nations to avoid such high spending.
Although some of the issues discussed here are about US spending, they are also relevant to a number of other nations.
Should spending be tied to GDP?
Chris Hellman argues that GDP is not an appropriate way to measure necessary US military budget allocation:
Linking military spending to the GDP is an argument frequently made by supporters of higher military budgets. Comparing military spending (or any other spending for that matter) to the GDP tells you how large a burden such spending puts on the US economy, but it tells you nothing about the burden a $440 billion military budget puts on U.S. taxpayers. Our economy may be able to bear higher military spending, but the question today is whether current military spending levels are necessary and whether these funds are going towards the proper priorities. Further, such comparisons are only made when the economy is healthy. It is unlikely that those arguing that military spending should be a certain portion of GDP would continue to make this case if the economy suddenly weakened, thus requiring dramatic cuts in the military.
— Chris Hellman, The Runaway Military Budget: An Analysis
Since Hellman wrote the above, there has of course been the global financial crisis, that started from the US and has spread. Hellman might be surprised to find that even in such times, there are still serious proposals for pegging military spending to GDP. In recent months some senators and representatives have introduced proposals and bills calling for 4% of GDP to be guaranteed as the military budget (not including “supplementals” for war).
As Travis Sharp summarizes, critics of tying the US military budget to 4% of GDP fail in 3 ways:
- It would add $1.4 trillion to $1.7 trillion to deficits over the next decade and provide more defense funding than is forecast to be necessary;
- It would determine budgets using rigid formulas instead of realistic threat-based analysis, which would allow procurement to drive strategy rather than the other way around; and
- It is politically unviable in the economic and budgetary environment faced by the United States.
Sharp also adds that when the war supplemental for Iraq and Afghanistan are considered, the US budget is already over the 4% mark. The other concerns is that tying it to GDP eases the debate that would otherwise occur on the issue:
GDP is an important metric for determining how much the United States could afford to spend on defense, but it provides no insight into how much the United States should spend. Defense planning is a matter of matching limited resources to achieve carefully scrutinized and prioritized objectives. When there are more threats, a nation spends more. When there are fewer threats, it spends less. As threats evolve, funding should evolve along with them.…
Unfortunately, setting defense spending at four percent of GDP would shield the Pentagon from careful scrutiny and curtail a much-needed transparent national debate.
— Travis Sharp, Debate: Four Percent of Gross Domestic Product for Defense?, Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, February 26, 2009 (Emphasis added)
(See also the Tying U.S. Defense Spending to GDP: Bad Logic, Bad Policy, (April 15, 2008) from Travis Sharp for additional details.)
With the change in presidency from George Bush to Barack Obama, the US has signaled a desire to reform future spending and already indicated significant changes for the FY 2010 defense budget. For example, the US has indicated that it will cut some high-tech weapons that are deemed as unnecessary or wasteful, and spend more on troops and reform contracting practices and improve support for personnel, families and veterans.
There is predictable opposition from some quarters arguing it will threaten jobs and weaken national security, even though spending has been far more than necessary for over a decade. The Friends Committee on National Legislation argues that the job loss argument is weak: “It is true that discontinuing weapons systems will cause job loss in the short term, but unnecessary weapons manufacturing should not be considered a jobs program (that would be like spending billions of dollars digging holes), and research shows that these jobs can be successfully transferred to other sectors.” In other words, this is unnecessary and wasted labor (as well as wasted capital and wasted resources).
US high military spending means others do not have to?
Some argue that high US military spending allows other nations to spend less. But this view seems to change the order of historical events:
- During the Cold War, high spending was common around the world.
- High spending was reduced by allies such as various European and Asian countries as the Cold War ended (almost 2 decades ago) not because other nations felt they would be protected by the US — a dangerous foreign policy choice by any sovereign nation to rely so much on others in this way — but because they perceived any global threat from the Cold War had diminished and simply didn’t need such high spending any more; globalization of trade was supposed to be ushered in and lead to a new era.
- It was only the US as the remaining global super power that maintained a high budget. Many argue this was to strengthen its position as sole super power and that its “military industrial complex” was able to convince their public to maintain it.
Past empires have throughout history have justified their position as being good for the world. The US is no exception.
However, whether this global hegemony and stability actually means positive stability, peace and prosperity for the entire world (or most of it) is subjective. That is, certainly the hegemony at the time, and its allies would benefit from the stability, relative peace and prosperity for themselves, but often ignored in this is whether the policies pursued for their advantages breeds contempt elsewhere.
As the global peace index chart shown earlier reveals, massive military spending has not led to a much global peace.
As noted in other parts of this site, unfortunately more powerful countries have also pursued policies that have contributed to more poverty, and at times even overthrown fledgling democracies in favor of dictatorships or more malleable democracies. (Osama Bin Laden, for example, was part of an enormous Islamic militancy encouraged and trained by the US to help fight the Soviet Union. Of course, these extremists are all too happy to take credit for fighting off the Soviets in Afghanistan, never acknowledging that it would have been impossible without their so-called “great satan” friend-turned-enemy!)
So the global good hegemon theory may help justify high spending and even stability for a number of other countries, but it does not necessarily apply to the whole world. To be fair, this criticism can also be a bit simplistic especially if an empire finds itself against a competitor with similar ambitions, that risks polarizing the world, and answers are likely difficult to find.
But even for the large US economy, the high military spending may not be sustainable in the long term. Noting trends in military spending, SIPRI added that the massive increase in US military spending has been one of the factors contributing to the deterioration of the US economy since 2001. SIPRI continues that, “In addition to its direct impact of high military expenditure, there are also indirect and more long-term effects. According to one study taking these factors into account, the overall past and future costs until year 2016 to the USA for the war in Iraq have been estimated to $2.267 trillion.”
US military budget vs. other US priorities
The peace lobby, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, calculates for Fiscal Year 2009 that the majority of US tax payer’s money goes towards war:
As a pie chart
Furthermore, “national defense” category of federal spending is typically just over half of the United States discretionary budget (the money the President/Administration and Congress have direct control over, and must decide and act to spend each year. This is different to mandatory spending, the money that is spent in compliance with existing laws, such as social security benefits, medicare, paying the interest on the national debt and so on). For recent years here is how military, education and health budgets (the top 3) have fared:
| Year | Total ($) | Defense ($) | Defense (%) | Education ($) | Education (%) | Health ($) | Health (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sources and notes
| |||||||
| 2009 | 997 | 541 | 54 | 61.9 | 6.2 | 52.7 | 5.3 |
| 2008 | 930 | 481.4 | 51.8 | 58.6 | 6.3 | 52.3 | 5.6 |
| 2007 | 873 | 460 | 52.7 | 56.8 | 6.5 | 53.1 | 6.1 |
| 2006 | 840.5 | 438.8 | 52 | 58.4 | 6.9 | 51 | 6.1 |
| 2005 | 820 | 421 | 51 | 60 | 7 | 51 | 6.2 |
| 2004 | 782 | 399 | 51 | 55 | 7 | 49 | 6.3 |
| 2003 | 767 | 396 | 51.6 | 52 | 6.8 | 49 | 6.4 |
For those hoping the world can decrease its military spending, SIPRI warns that “while the invasion [of Iraq] may have served as warning to other states with weapons of mass destruction, it could have the reverse effect in that some states may see an increase in arsenals as the only way to prevent a forced regime change.”
In this new era, traditional military threats to the USA are fairly remote. All of their enemies, former enemies and even allies do not pose a military threat to the United States. For a while now, critics of large military spending have pointed out that most likely forms of threat to the United States would be through terrorist actions, rather than conventional warfare, and that the spending is still geared towards Cold War-type scenarios and other such conventional confrontations.
[T]he lion’s share of this money is not spent by the Pentagon on protecting American citizens. It goes to supporting U.S. military activities, including interventions, throughout the world. Were this budget and the organization it finances called the “Military Department,” then attitudes might be quite different. Americans are willing to pay for defense, but they would probably be much less willing to spend billions of dollars if the money were labeled “Foreign Military Operations.”
— The Billions For “Defense” Jeopardize Our Safety, Center For Defense Information, March 9, 2000
And, of course, this will come from American tax payer money. Many studies and polls show that military spending is one of the last things on the minds of American people.
But it is not just the U.S. military spending. In fact, as Jan Oberg argues, western militarism often overlaps with civilian functions affecting attitudes to militarism in general. As a result, when revelations come out that some Western militaries may have trained dictators and human rights violators, the justification given may be surprising, which we look at in the next page.
Where next?
Related articles
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- World Military Spending
- Training Human Rights Violators
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- Small Arms—they cause 90% of civilian casualties
- A Code of Conduct for Arms Sales
- Landmines
- Arms Trade Links for more information
- Militarization and Weaponization of Outer Space
- Star Wars; Phantom Menace or New Hope?
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