Military budget

A military budget (or military expenditure), also known as a defense budget, is the amount of financial resources dedicated by a state to raising and maintaining an armed forces or other methods essential for defense purposes.

Global military expenditure in 2023

Financing militaries

Military budgets often reflect how strongly a country perceives the likelihood of threats against it, or the amount of aggression it wishes to conjure. It also gives an idea of how much financing should be provided for the upcoming fiscal year. The size of a budget also reflects the country's ability to fund military activities.^[1] Factors include the size of that country's economy, other financial demands on that entity, and the willingness of that entity's government or people to fund such military activity. Generally excluded from military expenditures is spending on internal law enforcement and disabled veteran rehabilitation. The effects of military expenditure on a nation's economy and society, and what determines military expenditure, are notable issues in political science and economics. Generally, some suggest military expenditure is a boost to local economies.^[2] Still, others maintain military expenditure is a drag on development.^[3]

Among the countries maintaining some of the world's largest military budgets, China, India, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States are frequently recognized to be great powers.^[4]

In 2023, the United States spent 3.4% of its GDP on its military, while China 1.7%, Russia 5,9%, France 2.1%, United Kingdom 2.3%, India 2.4%, Israel 5.3%, South Korea 2.8% and Germany spent 1.5% of its GDP on defense.^[5]

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in 2023, total world military expenditure amounted to US$2.443 trillion. It increased 6.8 percent^[6] over the previous year. With the Russo-Ukrainian War, European expenditures rose by 16 percent.^[7]

Historic expenditure

Military expenditure of the world from 1950 to 2022 in constant 2021 US$ billions

Defense spending in the UK over time

Main article: Past military expenditure by country

The Saturday Review magazine in February 1898 outlined the levels of military expenditure as a percentage of tax revenue spent by the then great powers for the year 1897:^[8]

• United States: 17%. (See Military budget of the United States.) The United States has fluctuated for decades, depending on the conflict of the time. The first spike in defense spending, and in turn taxes, came during the very beginning of the 19th century.^[9] During World War I, the United States spent 22% of gross domestic product, while during peacetime, the government spent on as little as 1% Gross Domestic Product (GDP).^[10] This changed following World War II as the United States government were experiencing an immense fear of the expansion of communism and therefore heightened security on all fronts. This was supported by Americans as it brought upon them a sense of security and the 3.6% GDP they were contributing to was a large decrease from the whopping amounts of capital being spent during WWII that exceeded 41%, before decreasing to 10% during the Cold War and for about two more decades after, including the Vietnam War, before beginning to decrease in the 1970s down to 6%, then 5.5% in 1979 before beginning to steadily incline once again.^[10][9] After 2001, though, and the September 11 terrorist attacks, defense spending spiked again, peaking at 5.7% in 2010.^[10]
• Russian Empire: 21%
• French Third Republic: 27%
• British Empire: 39%
• German Empire: 43%
• Empire of Japan: 55%

See also

• List of countries by military expenditures
• Past military expenditure by country
• List of countries by military expenditure per capita
• Arms industry
• History of military technology
• Military–industrial complex
• List of countries by Global Militarization Index
• List of countries in Europe by military expenditures

References

1. Statistics on Defense Expenditures in the U.S. per Capita, 1990-2011, NATO, April 2012.
2. Hicks, Louis; Curt Raney (2003). "The Social Impact of Military Growth in St. Mary's County, Maryland, 1940-1995". Armed Forces & Society. 29 (3): 353–371. doi:10.1177/0095327x0302900303. S2CID 145097214.
3. Nef, J.U. (1950). War and Human Progress. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
4. Baron, Joshua (22 January 2014). Great Power Peace and American Primacy: The Origins and Future of a New International Order. United States: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1137299482.
5. Nan Tian, Diego Lopes da Silva, Xiao Liang and Lorenzo Scarazzato. "Trends in world military expenditure 2023" (PDF). Sipri.org. p. 2. Retrieved 2024-08-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
6. Nan Tian, Diego Lopes da Silva, Xiao Liang and Lorenzo Scarazzato. "Trends in world military expenditure 2023" (PDF). Sipri.org. p. 1. Retrieved 2024-08-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
7. Nan Tian, Diego Lopes da Silva, Xiao Liang and Lorenzo Scarazzato. "Trends in world military expenditure 2023" (PDF). Sipri.org. p. 6. Retrieved 2024-08-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
8. Harris, Frank, ed. (February 1898). Saturday Review Magazine.
9. Borch, Casey, and Michael Wallace. "Military Spending and Economic Well-Being in the American States: The Post-Vietnam War Era". Social Forces, vol. 88, no. 4, 2010, pp. 1727–1752. Oxford University Press, doi:10.1353/sof.0.0268. Accessed 15 October 2017.
10. Chantrill, Christopher. "What Is the Total US Defense Spending?" US Government Defense Spending History with Charts - a Www.usgovernmentspending.com Briefing, American Thinkers, 17 July 2011, www.usgovernmentspending.com/defense_spending

External links

• Barnum, Miriam; Fariss, Christopher J.; Markowitz, Jonathan N.; Morales, Gaea (2024). "Measuring Arms: Introducing the Global Military Spending Dataset". Journal of Conflict Resolution.
• Becker, Jordan; Benson, Seth; Dunne, J Paul; Malesky, Edmund (2024). "Disaggregated defense spending: Introduction to data". Journal of Peace Research.
• Hicks, Louis; Raney, Curt. "The Social Impact of Military Growth in St. Mary's County, Maryland, 1940-1995". Armed Forces & Society. 29: 3.
• Hicks, Louis; Raney, Curt. "African Countries' Military expenditure since 1960". The African Onlooker. 29: 3.