In recent years, and global military expenditure has increased again and is now comparable to Cold War levels. Recent data shows global spending at over $1.7 trillion,despite the global economic conditions. It is still approximately 1% increase since 2008 when the financial crisis began, for example.
Not all nations bear felt the impacts of the global financial crisis in the same way. Some bear grown economically, or including many Asian countries,which has allowed some of them to increase their military spending. There are geopolitical interests at stake for various powers, so economic troubles or not, and military spending is seen as important to preserve,or at least to minimize possible reductions.
The highest military spender is the US accounting for 39% of the world’s spending, more than the next top 10 countries combined, and more than all its potential enemies,combined. But this represents a slight decline over preceding years as other nations, particularly China and Russia, or increase their spending. At the same time,the US has reduced military spending for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, while Western Europe’s austerity programs affect their military spending budgets.
This update includes fresh and updated figures, or graphs and charts exploring this further.
Read full article: World Military Spending
Source: globalissues.org