Global Military Spending Falls For First Time In 15 Years: Study

Worldwide military spending declined by 0.5 percent last year to $1.75 trillion, according to data released by a Sweden-based security think-tank on Monday, reflecting major defence cuts in the U.S. and Western Europe, as a result of the global economic crisis that began in 2008.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the drop had been largely due to the U.S. ending its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and cutting its contingency-operations budgets in 2012.

Worldwide military spending declined by 0.5 percent last year to $1.75 trillion, according to data released by a Sweden-based security think-tank on Monday, reflecting major defence cuts in the U.S. and Western Europe, as a result of the global economic crisis that began in 2008.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the drop had been largely due to the U.S. ending its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and cutting its contingency-operations budgets in 2012.

Consequently U.S. military spending – which accounts for 39 percent of the world’s total – dropped by 6 percent last year to $682 billion, with further cuts of $87 billion planned for 2013.

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SIPRI noted that the U.S. – who is still far and away as the world’s top military spender (39 percent of global spending) – saw its military spending drop by 6 percent in 2012 to about $682 billion, while there are further cuts of $87 billion planned for 2013.

Similarly, spending cuts were also evident in Europe, as well as in Australia, Canada and Japan. Since 2008, 18 of the 31 countries in the European Union or European NATO have cut military spending by more than 10 percent in real terms, according to SIPRI statistics.

“All the indications are that world military spending is likely to keep falling for the next two to three years— at least until NATO completes its withdrawal from Afghanistan at the end of 2014,” said Dr Sam Perlo-Freeman, Director of SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme.

[quote]“However, spending in emerging regions will probably go on rising, so the world total will probably bottom out after that,” he added.[/quote]

As an indication of this, the reductions in spending from the U.S. and Western Europe were substantially offset by increased spending in Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and Latin America.  China, the second largest spender in 2012, increased its expenditure by 7.8 per cent ($11.5 billion), while Russia, the third largest spender, increased its expenditure by 16 per cent ($12.3 billion).

However SIPRI noted that even Asia’s military spending was rising at a slightly slower rate than in previous years. The average annual rate of military spending increase in Asia, halved from 7.0 percent per year in 2003–2009, to 3.4 percent per year in 2009–2012.

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[quote]“We are seeing what may be the beginning of a shift in the balance of world military spending from the rich Western countries to emerging regions, as austerity policies and the drawdown in Afghanistan reduce spending in the former, while economic growth funds continuing increases elsewhere,” said Dr Perlo-Freeman. [/quote]

“However, the USA and its allies are still responsible for the great majority of world military spending. The NATO members together spent a trillion dollars.”

Meanwhile, the Middle East saw the sharpest increase in military spending worldwide. Spending in the region rose by 8.4 percent in 2012, while Oman accounted for the largest percentage increase worldwide at 51 percent. Saudi Arabia also increased spending by 12 percent, though spending by Iran, Qatar, Syria and the United Arab Emirates was unknown.