Global military spending hit an all-time high in 2023, report says

Global military spending hit a record $2.443 billion in 2023 amid a “global deterioration in peace and security”, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said on Monday. .

The figure represents a 6.8% increase from 2022 and the largest year-over-year increase since 2009, the institute said in a report on military spending trends.

“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 Expenditure and Arms Production Program. , in a press release.

Military spending has increased for nine consecutive years, and it increased in all regions of the world for the first time since 2009, according to the report. This was linked to the war in Ukraine, as well as growing tensions in the Middle East and other developments, such as the fight against organized crime and gang violence in Central America and the Caribbean.

Ukraine and Russia, actively at war, top the list of countries having increased their military spending the most in 2023, by 51% and 24%, respectively. Russia’s actual military spending remained well above Ukraine’s, estimated at $109 billion, making it the third largest military spender internationally, behind the United States and China.

This figure is probably underestimated, the report notes, because Russian finances are very opaque and the budget allocated to military spending is supplemented by companies, individuals and organizations.

Ukraine’s military spending, meanwhile, amounts to about $64.8 billion, or about 59 percent of Russian spending, but 37 percent of Ukraine’s GDP, according to the report. This figure does not include the tens of billions in military aid kyiv receives, which narrows the gap between its spending and that of Russia.

The war between Russia and Ukraine has also led to increased military spending elsewhere, prompting countries to think differently about their security prospects, said Lorenzo Scarazzato, a researcher in military spending and arms production at SIPRI, in a communicated.

“This change in threat perception is reflected in the fact that an increasing share of GDP is devoted to military spending, with NATO’s 2% target increasingly seen as a benchmark rather than a benchmark. threshold to be reached,” he declared.

Donald Trump, former president and candidate in this year’s US presidential election, warned in February that he would not protect NATO member countries that are behind on their payment commitments in the event of Russian attacks. . The comments sparked a political storm among allies and led NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to acknowledge that some members did not have sufficient funding.

Poland’s military spending soared by 75% in 2023, while that of Germany and the United Kingdom increased by 9% and 7.9%, respectively, according to the SIPRI report. The United States, which spends the most on its military, recorded a 2.3% increase in spending year-on-year, reaching $916 billion in 2023.

China, the second-biggest military spender between the United States and Russia, allocated about $296 billion to its military, about 6 percent more than the previous year, according to estimated figures.

Tensions in the Middle East also contributed significantly to the overall increase in global military spending, according to the report. Spending in Israel, which is also in active conflict, jumped 24% to $27.5 billion.

“The increase in spending is mainly due to Israel’s large-scale offensive in Gaza in response to Hamas’s attack on southern Israel in October 2023. Israel’s monthly military spending has increased significantly since the start of the war in Gaza: they increased from an average of $1.8 billion per month before October to $4.7 billion in December 2023,” the report says.