The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s data shows that Washington spends three times as much on its military than China, the second-largest spender, Ashik Siddique reports.
President Joe Biden in May. (White House, Erin Scott)
US Spends 3 Times More Than China
and 10 Times More than Russia; Rest of World Spends $363bn Less Than US
By Ashik Siddique
National Priorities Project
World military spending reached a new record high of $2.24 trillion in 2022, according to new data published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
That’s up 3.7 percent since the previous year, including the steepest increase among European nations since the end of the Cold War over 30 years ago.
The United States remains the world’s largest military spender by far, with its $877 billion representing 39 percent of global military spending. That’s three times as much as the second largest spender, China, which spent $292 billion in 2022. And it’s about 10 times as much as the next largest spender, Russia, which spent about $86 billion in the same year.
U.S. spending is more than the next 10 countries combined, more than last year when it was larger than the next nine. Many of these next 10 countries are geopolitically aligned with the U.S. — including Ukraine, which had the highest single-year increase in military spending SIPRI has ever recorded, rising 640 percent to $44 billion since Russia invaded.
U.S. military aid to Ukraine amounted to $19.9 billion in 2022, but this was only 2.3 percent of total U.S. military spending. Military spending by NATO members, including the U.S., totalled $1.232 trillion in 2022, up 0.9 percent since 2021.
Many analysts have predicted a long-term war of attrition, with no victory in sight for either side — it remains unclear how continuously increasing militarization can end this war.
Meanwhile, basic needs continue to go unmet for hundreds of millions of people around the world. The climate crisis continues to wreak havoc, and the U.S. has barely begun to address its historical responsibility in contributing to global fossil fuel emissions. The nations of the world are dangerously unprepared to secure our collective planetary future.
The full U.S. military budget is much more than the $514 billion spent by the rest of the world’s 144 nations combined. That’s a difference of $363 billion, which would be enough to fund solar power for nearly every household in the U.S. for 10 years.
That difference of $363 billion would be enough to fund 43 million public housing units — more than the 38 million people displaced as refugees in the post-9/11 wars waged by the U.S. over the past two decades.
Just 10 percent of the U.S. military budget would go a long way toward meeting any number of societal needs.
It’s worth noting that it’s not inevitable for countries to keep perpetually increasing their military budgets — a number of large nations, like Nigeria and Turkey, have significantly decreased military spending in the past year.
Over-investment in the military is a major cause of the crises we face today. But it’s possible to reinvest in real solutions and begin to repair the harm caused by many decades of war.
Ashik Siddique is a research analyst for the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies.
This article is from Common Dreams.
The views expressed in this article and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
I wish I knew why or if America makes the other countries that we go to war with, or finance their wars, like the Ukraine, pay us back? I once read something that indicated that we are the biggest exporter of war products. Why doesn’t the money we make reduce the overall military spending budget?
We can’t afford to give our citizens health care, we can’t afford to repair our roads, but we can always afford more military gadgets, even though our military can’t defeat any enemies bigger than Grenada. Hmmm. Societal insanity?
Democrats: The Other Fascist Party
A reader (Jean) of the French site Les Crises point out that the biggest military spending country per capita is by far Israel, followed in order by Russia, France, and then the U.S. in fourth place.
Not sure about those numbers re Russia. The US has a little over twice the population (331 m people) and spends 10x more (over $800 bn) than Russia (145 m people, $86 bn in military spending). A quick internet search for per capita spending shows the top four, in order: Saudia Arabia, Singapore, Isreal, United States. Russia doesn’t make the top 15. You might be referring to GDP. Russia is number 3, GDP wise.
In addition to war, the USA likes to imprison and torture:
hxxps://www.theguardian.com/law/2023/may/11/abu-zubaydah-drawings-guantanamo-bay-us-torture-policy
Not for the faint of heart; this account is horrific. Heads must roll.
Spending vast sums of money on ‘defence’ doesn’t mean you get good quality results. The western MIC is notoriously corrupt, and is known for grossly over-engineering its products deliberately to keeps prices and maintenance high. Quality is not consistent, reliability is low (think F35) and often the weapons aren’t fit for purpose, as the Ukraine conflict has revealed.
So, in the US parlance they are getting lousy ‘bang for buck’, whereas the Russians and Chinese who tightly control their military spending are getting far far better value for money.
Another problem with the western MIC is that it produces products according to the military intelligence agencies’ assessment of the enemy’s capabilities, and likely theatres of war. That coupled with ideological notions of supremacy and superiority taint the overall assessment of the US’ military capabilities, which is reflected not just in the strategies and tactics on the battlefield but in the type of weapons deployed. For example, the failure to develop a capable air defence system that can compete with the much better Russians systems demonstrates this thinking.
They can throw money at the MIC but it won’t guarantee better results.
I wish I knew why or if America makes the other countries that we go to war with, or finance their wars, like the Ukraine, pay us back? I once read something that indicated that we are the biggest exporter of war products. Why doesn’t the money we make reduce the overall military spending budget?
Just think how much pollution of various kinds would stop if all the wars and military ‘exercises’ ceased forthwith.
“Many analysts have predicted a long-term war of attrition, with no victory in sight for either side — it remains unclear how continuously increasing militarization can end this war.”
Not to some who understand that quality trumps quantity as illustrated by one Russian “oligarch” observation in the early 1990’s.
Two “oligarchs” came to the same “prestigious” party wearing the same tie.
One “oligarch” asked the other “oligarch” what he paid for the tie.
The other “oligarch” said 400 hundred dollars.
The one “oligarch” who asked felt “superior” since he paid 500 dollars.
That’s just the official DoD annual budget. If we add all of the weapons and war appropriations, military giveaways to Israel etc., nuclear weapons “modernization” program, and other related military/security/surveillance expenditures we are talking well in excess of a trillion a year.
(Btw, What happened to Joe Lauria’s article about Germany banning USSR symbols? It seems to have disappeared)
That article has been restored.
1552-1659 CE, Spain Empire: The Spanish empire found itself overextended. Flooded with riches from the mines of the Andes Mountains, it failed to recognize the transient nature of its good fortune. Instead of using its new found resources to build up a weak domestic economy, it spent estravagantly at home. Pursued imperialistic policies abroad, wasted wealth in vain wars to retain vulnerable territories that offered little but prestige and massive expense.
US leaders never learn from history.