The Hindu : National : Military spending close to cold war levels: report

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Tuesday, Nov 14, 2006
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Military spending close to cold war levels: report

Sandeep Dikshit

NEW DELHI: World military expenditure has been increasing rapidly and is close to the cold war levels.TheUnited States accounts for almost half of the world total, according to the data compiled by the Stockholm Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and presented at a seminar on defence finance and economics here on Monday.

Military spending declined by 28 per cent between 1989 and 1996 — an average annual reduction of 4.5 per cent. This was followed by a period of moderate growth at 1.5 per cent annually till 2001. Since then, it has increased by 25 per cent. By 2005 the spending was only four per cent lower than in 1988, one of the peak years during the cold war, according to Elisabeth Skons, Project Leader at SIPRI.

Big spenders

The global trend is influenced by 15 biggest spenders — including India — accounting for 84 per cent of the total military expenditure. This group has countries from all continents except Africa and Latin America. The country with the strongest impact on the global trend is the U.S., whose spending between 1996 and 2005 increased by $ 160 billion of the total world increase of $ 254 billion. ``The U.S. impact is particularly strong on the acceleration in the global trend in 2001 with the U.S. spending accounting for 75 per cent of the $ 201 billion increase in the world total.''

While the U.S. had the greatest impact in terms of spending, China, Saudi Arabia and India recorded the highest growth rates in 1996-2005.

When world military spending rose by 25 per cent, the Americas were the only region with a ``clearly above average increase,'' while in all other regions the spending increased by less than the world average. The only region with a decreasing expenditure over the 10-year period was Central America, followed by U.S. ally Mexico accounting for over 80 per cent of Central American spending.

Analysing the trends by income level, the institute said low-income countries (which include India) had the highest growth rate in their military spending at 64 per cent in 1996-2005 while the high-income countries had the lowest growth rate of 29 per cent. However, this relationship changed after 2001 with high-income countries having the highest growth rate.

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