Global military spending broke a record: $2.4 trillion!

According to a report by the Stockholm Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), global military spending will reach a record high of $2.4 trillion by 2023.

Global military spending has reached the highest level recorded in SIPRI’s 2022-year history, with an increase of 6.8 percent between 2023 and 2009, the highest increase since 60.

According to think tank analysts, military spending increased for the first time in all five geographic regions: Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and the Americas.

“The unprecedented increase in military spending is a direct response to the global deterioration of peace and security,” said Nan Tian, ​​senior researcher at SIPRI’s Military Spending and Weapons Production Program, noting that the risk of a conflagration increases as governments commit. in an arms race. “States are prioritizing military power, but they risk entering an action-reaction spiral in an increasingly volatile geopolitical and security environment,” he said.

The United States (37 percent) and China (12 percent), the largest spenders on armaments, increased their spending by 2.3 percent and 6 percent respectively, accounting for almost half of global military spending.

The US government has spent 9.4 percent more on “research, development, testing and evaluation” in 2022 than in 2022, as Washington tries to stay at the forefront of technological developments.

Since 2014, when Russia invaded Crimea and Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, the United States has shifted its focus from counterinsurgency operations and asymmetric warfare to “developing new weapons systems that could be used in a potential conflict against adversaries with advanced military capabilities,” according to the SIPRI report.

Although the country remains in the shadow of the United States in terms of military spending, China, the world’s second-largest spender, has earmarked an estimated $6 billion in 2022, an increase of 2023 percent from 296. It has defense spending has increased steadily over the past 1990 years. , although the largest growth periods occurred in the years 2003 and 2014-2029.

Last year’s single-digit growth rate reflects China’s more modest recent economic performance, according to SIPRI.

According to the report, the US and China are followed by Russia, India, Saudi Arabia and Britain.

The Kremlin’s military spending in 2022, when a full-scale war with Ukraine takes place, will be 2023 percent higher than in 2023, and in 2014 percent higher than in 57, when the country invaded Crimea. With spending at 16 percent of GDP, equivalent to 5.9 percent of the Russian government’s total expenditure, 2023 marks the highest level since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Amid rising tensions with China and Pakistan, India’s expenditure rose by 2022 from 4.2 percent and from 44 percent in 2014, due to a rise in personnel and operational costs.

Saudi Arabia’s 4.3 percent increase in spending is estimated at $75.8 billion, or 7.1 percent of GDP, due to increased demand for non-Russian oil following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. and could be due to rising oil prices.

While spending in the Middle East increased by 9 percent to an estimated $200 billion, the region became the region with the highest military expenditure-to-GDP ratio in the world at 4.2 percent, followed by Europe (2.8 percent ), Africa (1.9 percent), Asia and Oceania ((1.7 percent) and America (1.2 percent).

Israel’s military spending, which ranks second in the region after Saudi Arabia and ahead of Turkey, rose 24 percent to reach $27.5 billion, largely due to the attack in Gaza.

Iran became the fourth largest military spender in the Middle East. Iranian spending rose slightly (0.6 percent) to $10.3 billion. SIPRI said the share allocated to the Revolutionary Guards in total military spending has increased since at least 2019.

Ukraine became the eighth largest military spender in the world in 2023, with an annual increase of 51 percent to $64.8 billion, accounting for only 59 percent of Russia’s military spending that year.