Military budget
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A military budget of an entity, most often a nation or a state is the budget and financial resources dedicated to raising and maintaining armed forces for that entity. Military budgets reflect how much an entity perceives the likelihood of threats against it, or the amount of aggression it wishes to employ. The United States accounts for half of all military spending in the world. In 2006, the U.S. military budget was $420 billion. To put the figure in perspective, according to *The Borgen Project $19 billion a year is the annual shortfall to end world hunger.
Military budgets (2003)
The yearly report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute shows that the purchase of military products by NATO member nations during the year 2003 rose 11% relative to 2002 (6.5 % in volume). In some countries, this budget has been increased to the level maintained during the Cold War.
The United States Military Budget leads in this increase. First of all, their purchases represent 47% of the US$ 956 billion world military expenditure in 2003. Moreover, without the decision to lead a campaign in Iraq and the suplementary expense of US$ 83 billion, the main expense would have been increased by only 3.5%. In general, this spending increase was copied by other countries. The military budgets of France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy represent about 13% (US$ 120 billion) of world military spending. France and the United Kingdom have increased their equipment expenses, not only to act in United States military actions with the same technological level of their big ally, but equally to be able to act independently in smaller military campaigns such as Côte d'Ivoire.
Among non-NATO nations, Japan spent US$ 46.9 billion on military resources in 2003, The People's Republic of China, US$ 32.8 billion, and Russia, US$ 13 billion, (5%, 4%, and 1% of the world total, respectively).
NATO countries' largest military budgets
Budgets 2002 for NATO countries
Budgets 2002 for NATO countries in billions of US dollars
| Country | Budget (in Billions) |
|---|---|
| United States of America | 329.00 |
| United Kingdom | 38.40 |
| France | 29.50 |
| Germany | 24.90 |
| Italy | 19.40 |
| Spain | 8.40 |
| Canada | 7.40 |
| Netherlands | 6.60 |
| Turkey | 5.80 |
| Norway | 3.80 |
| Greece | 3.50 |
| Poland | 3.50 |
| Belgium | 2.53 |
| Denmark | 2.40 |
| Czech Republic | 1.62 |
| Portugal | 1.30 |
| Romania | 1.15 |
| Hungary | 1.08 |
| Slovakia | 0.45 |
| Bulgaria | 0.43 |
| Slovenia | 0.31 |
| Lithuania | 0.23 |
| Luxembourg | 0.18 |
| Estonia | 0.13 |
| Latvia | 0.12 |
| Iceland | 0.03 |
- Source : Atlas stratégique 2004
See also
- List of countries by military expenditures
- Permanent arms economy
- Military funding of science
- Military Keynesianism
- Mutual assured destruction
- Pacifism
- Peace dividend
- Guns versus butter theory
- Budget overrun
External links
- The Borgen Project
- Military expenditure as percent of GDP - CIA The World Factbook
- Military expenditure - dollar figure - CIA The World Factbook