Global military spending fell in 2013 for the second year running, as Western countries continued to cut back. However, rising expenditure across the rest of the world is increasingly making up the difference.
Spending in 2013 dipped by 1.9% year-on-year to $1.75 trillion. However, according to the latest annual figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, if the USA – the number-one spender – was excluded, global spending would have increased by 1.8%.
The next three highest spenders—China, Russia and Saudi Arabia—all made substantial increases in expenditure, with Saudi Arabia leapfrogging the United Kingdom, Japan and France to become the world's fourth-largest military spender. The three are among the 23 countries around the world that have more than doubled their military expenditure since 2004.
Sam Perlo-Freeman, director of SIPRI's military expenditure programme, says: “The increase in military spending in emerging and developing countries continues unabated.
"While in some cases it is the natural result of economic growth or a response to genuine security needs, in other cases it represents a squandering of natural resource revenues, the dominance of autocratic regimes, or emerging regional arms races.”
SIPRI, which does not split out spending on military aerospace, says the 7.8% fall in US spending in 2013 was the result of the end of the war in Iraq, the beginning of the drawdown from Afghanistan, and the effects of automatic budget cuts passed by the US Congress in 2011. Austerity policies continued to determine trends in western and central Europe, and in other Western countries.
Perlo-Freeman notes that spending in the Middle East increased by 4% in 2013, reaching an estimated $150 billion. Saudi Arabia's spending increased by 14% to reach $67 billion – possibly due to tensions with Iran, but also the desire to maintain strong and loyal security forces to insure against potential “Arab Spring”-type protests.
He adds that regime survival in the face of internal opposition is also the likely motive for Bahrain's 26% increase. At 27%, the largest regional increase was Iraq’s, as it continued the rebuilding of its armed forces.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
