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US fuels boom in global military
spending
By Thalif Deen
STOCKHOLM - The "war on terrorism" has triggered
a dramatic increase in US military spending, according
to a report by the Stockholm International Peace
Research Institute (SIPRI) released on Tuesday.
The world spent US$784 billion on arms last
year, a sharp acceleration from $741 billion the
previous year, the SIPRI report says. The United States
accounted for almost three-quarters of that increase.
SIPRI attributes this increase primarily to the
US response to the terrorist attacks of September 11,
2001. But US military spending had been rising earlier
too. The figures show that US military spending climbed
from about $296 billion in 1997 to $335.7 billion last
year.
"Our figures show clearly that the bulk of
the rapid increase in spending in 2002 is accounted for
by the United States alone," SIPRI director Alyson J K
Bailes said.
The US Department of Defense has
estimated US military spending for 2004 at about $390
billion, rising to $400 billion in 2005. The recent war
on Iraq is expected to cost the United States more than
$150 billion; by contrast, the 1991 Gulf War cost about
$61 billion.
Japan, the world's second-largest
military spender, is far behind the United States with
an annual defense budget of $49 billion, followed by the
United Kingdom with $36 billion. The top five spenders -
the US, Japan, the UK, France and China - account for
about 62 percent of total world military expenditure.
According to the SIPRI Yearbook, the United
States now accounts for 43 percent of world military
expenditure.
China, Russia and Brazil have all
increased defense budgets significantly. The countries
with the sharpest reductions in military spending in
2002 were Argentina, Guatemala and Venezuela in Latin
America and Belarus and the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia in Europe.
The European Union shows no
sign of following the United States in raising defense
budgets, Bailes said. And while the Russian budget has
risen, its possibilities are limited, she added. "A
review of global expenditure trends shows that the rest
of the world is not prepared, or cannot afford, to
follow the US example," SIPRI says in the yearbook.
Among the poorer nations the signs are mixed,
said Bailes. "Some nations are able to cut spending
voluntarily because of the ending of local conflicts, or
they are being forced to do so by economic problems. As
the security sector reform becomes a serious focus both
of international aid policy and of local security
cooperation, we may also see improvements in what could
be called the quality (rationality, transparency, and
proper targeting) of defense spending, which can often
be combined with quantitative cuts," she said.
Some former defense funds are not being cut so
much and are being diverted to internal and
non-traditional security aims such as counter-terrorism,
she added.
But there is pressure also to
increase defense budgets because of factors such as
keeping up with the latest technological advances, and
the interest of developing states in peacekeeping and
other interventions, Bailes said. The impact of
increased military aid that the United States in
particular is offering is also a factor, she
said.
The SIPRI Yearbook notes marked regional
disparities in military expenditure. In 2001 the Middle
East spent 6.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)
on the military compared with a global average of 2.3
percent. Latin America spent only 1.3 percent. Africa
(2.1 percent), Asia (1.6 percent) and Western Europe
(1.9 percent) spent less than the world average while
North America with 3.0 percent and Central and Eastern
Europe with 2.7 percent spent somewhat more.
The
Middle East is the largest single market for US weapons
systems. The 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait prompted
sharp increases in arms purchases by the six Persian
Gulf nations - Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi
Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Asked
whether arms purchases would decline after the ouster of
Iraq's Saddam Hussein regime by US military forces,
Bailes said, "Whatever uncertainties may still remain
over aspects of Iraq's future and its future regime, it
seems clear that for a long while at least we shall not
see another belligerent Iraq with the power and the wish
to threaten its neighbors."
An international
stabilizing force on Iraq's soil for some time could
allow other states to reduce their level of military
preparedness, Bailes said. But the results could be
different if outside powers build new military "clients"
to compete with others, she added.
Jayantha
Dhanapala, former United Nations undersecretary general
for disarmament affairs, said the rising global military
expenditure is not just diverting precious financial,
material and human resources from productive to
non-productive pursuits, but also jeopardizing the
environment and the prospects for social and economic
development.
Sixteen years ago the world
community gathered at the United Nations for the
International Conference on the Relationship between
Disarmament and Development. Yet today military
expenditure is rising, he said.
(Inter Press
Service)
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