June 2004, insights, Issue #50

Military spending and development

War in Iraq and Afghanistan, conflict between Israel and Palestine and terrorist attacks in a score of major cities have dominated the international headlines in the last three years. Few doubt their interconnections – although the sequence of cause and effect are matters of passionate debate. Meanwhile, instability grows and development, the Millennium Development Goals and poverty reduction are sidelined. Little attention is given to how the increase in military spending has been squeezing the resources available for development.

This issue of insights pulls together some of the preliminary facts and figures on military spending. It shows how globally, total military spending has returned to Cold War levels and underlines the gross misallocation of resources which these expenditures represent. In short, 2004 is marked by vast and rising global spending on weapons and the military with under-spending on the broader challenges of human security and human development.
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Other articles in this issue:

Cost of US military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States Congress has allocated some US$50 billion from the national budget for military operations in Afghanistan and US$100 billion for operations in Iraq. These figures represent the combined cost to the Department of Defense of conducting those operations until the end of September 2004, including the initial build up of US forces, the conventional combat phases of the two wars and the ongoing ‘stability’ operations that continue to be carried out in both countries. They do not include funding for reconstruction. Since US troops are expected to remain in Iraq and Afghanistan next year, more funding will clearly have to be provided to cover those costs as well.

Challenges to human security in the new South Africa

The 1996 South African Constitution clearly defined a progressive concept of national security, stating its aim to ‘reflect the resolve of South Africans, as individuals and as a nation, to live as equals, to live in peace and harmony, to be free from fear and want and to seek a better life.’ The Constitution expressed a vision of a primarily human-centered security, ‘protecting vital freedoms’ and ‘protecting people from critical and pervasive threats and situations’.

Behind the scenes military spending - dilemmas for managing public expenditure

Reported levels of military expenditure in state budgets often reveal only a part of the story. In many countries military expenses are disguised within non-defence budgets or do not appear in the budget at all. Such ‘off-budget’ military expenditure reduces the credibility of the overall budgeting process and raises difficult dilemmas for achieving an optimal allocation of public resources. Without knowing how many resources the armed forces absorb, it is difficult to get a realistic sense of how much it costs to defend a country or to ensure effective civil regulation of the armed forces by government and civil society.

Guns but no bread - how arms exporters are failing developing countries

It is a commonly held belief that developing countries rely primarily on small arms – which, being relatively cheap, should not be a huge financial burden to the country. But in fact, the countries of Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East own 51% of the world’s heavy weapons and in 2002 they imported two thirds of all arms deliveries worldwide, at a value of nearly US$17 billion.

Small arms – big bills

The global production of domestic firearms and military-style small arms such as handguns, assault rifles and grenades is estimated at 7.5 million units annually. These are added to an already considerable global stockpile of some 650 million small arms. About 100 countries and over 1,130 companies currently produce components for manufacturing weapons. This contributes to a considerable surplus that, combined with poor regulation and control, keeps the cost of such weaponry low and their availability high.

New challenges to global peace

As president of Costa Rica from 1986 to 1990, I witnessed first-hand the tremendous burden which arms and excessive military spending impose on the welfare of people in the developing world. The civil wars in Central America, which were exacerbated and prolonged by the militarism of the Cold War superpowers left a profound wound in our societies which has not healed to this day. Like many others, I hoped that with the end of the Cold War the terror of conventional weapons ‘guns, tanks, mines’ would fade along with the threat of nuclear holocaust. But it was not to be.

Sites for sore eyes

Further web resources.

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