World military spending up to US $ 1.338 trillion in 2007
AFP
June 10, 2008
Stockholm, June 9th 2008 - World military spending grew 45 percent in the past decade, with the United States accounting for nearly half of all expenditures, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said on Monday. Military spending grew 6 percent last year alone, according to SIPRI's annual report.
In 2007, $1.338 trillion was spent on arms and other military expenditure, corresponding to 2.5 percent of global gross domestic product, or GDP - or $202 for each of the world's 6.6 billion people.
The United States spends by far the most toward military aims, officially dishing out $547 billion last year, or 45 percent of global expenditure. Britain, China, France and Japan, the next in line of big spenders, lag far behind, accounting for just 4 to 5 percent of world military costs each.
In 2007, $1.338 trillion was spent on arms and other military expenditure, corresponding to 2.5 percent of global gross domestic product, or GDP - or $202 for each of the world's 6.6 billion people.
The United States spends by far the most toward military aims, officially dishing out $547 billion last year, or 45 percent of global expenditure. Britain, China, France and Japan, the next in line of big spenders, lag far behind, accounting for just 4 to 5 percent of world military costs each.
According to SIPRI at the beginning of 2008 eight nuclear weapon states possessed almost 10 200 operational nuclear weapons. Several thousand of these nuclear weapons are kept on high alert, ready to be launched within minutes. If all nuclear warheads are counted—operational warheads, spares, those in both active and inactive storage, and intact warheads scheduled for later dismantlement, these states together possess a total of more than 25 000 warheads.
The five states defined by the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as nuclear weapon states—China, France, Russia, the UK and the USA—were all in the process of deploying new nuclear weapons or had announced their intentions to do so in 2007. India and Pakistan, which with Israel are de facto nuclear weapon states outside the NPT, continued to develop new missile systems capable of delivering nuclear weapons. North Korea claimed in 2005 that it had developed nuclear weapons and conducted a nuclear test in 2006, but there is no public information to verify that North Korea has weaponized its nuclear capability.
"The factors driving increases in world military spending include countries' foreign policy objectives, real or perceived threats, armed conflict and policies to contribute to multilateral peacekeeping operations, combined with the availability of economic resources," the SIPRI report said.
The increase is both "excessive and obscene," Jayantha Dhanapala, a SIPRI member formerly in charge of disarmament affairs at the United Nations, told reporters in Stockholm, where the annual report was presented.
Registering the greatest regional growth was Eastern Europe, which saw its military spending skyrocket 162 percent between 1998 and 2007 and 15 percent from 2006 to 2007. Russia, whose expenditure ballooned 13 percent last year, was responsible for 86 percent of the growth in the region, according to SIPRI.
North America, meanwhile, saw its military spending swell 65 percent, largely pulled by the United States, which has seen its costs grow 59 percent since the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C.
"By 2007, US spending was higher than at any time since World War II," the report said.
In the past decade, the Middle East has boosted military expenditure by 62 percent, South Asia by 57 percent and Africa and East Asia by 51 percent each.
Western Europe was the region with the least military spending growth at just 6 percent, followed by Central America at 14 percent.
At a national level, "China has increased its military spending threefold in real terms during the past decade," the SIPRI report said, adding, however, that "due to its rapid economic growth, the economic burden of military spending is still moderate, at 2.1 percent of GDP."
As a direct result of the increased military outlay, sales by the world's 100 leading arms-producing companies (excluding in China) jumped nearly 9 percent in 2006 compared to the year before to $315 billion, SIPRI said.
Sixty-three of the 100 top weapons firms are based in the United States and Western Europe, accounting alone for $292.3 billion in sales in 2006, the last year for which SIPRI has numbers.
In its report, the group also said 14 major armed conflicts raged around the world last year - the same number as in 2006. In 2001, there were 20, SIPRI said.
"A new type of conflict is emerging and we are seeing a fragmentation of violence," in places such as Iraq and Sudan's Darfur region, SIPRI researcher Ekaterina Stepanova told the Stockholm news conference.
This non-state violence "may have devastating consequences for civilians. All the actors tend to be opportunistic and may change sides," she added.
On an upbeat note, SIPRI chief Bates Gill said both candidates in this year's US presidential election could help pave the way for "the most promising opportunities to see real progress in the nuclear arms control that we have seen in the last 10 years."
