European countries have been boosting their military spending even before the Russia-Ukraine war
India Today
Even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, European countries have been the primary drivers of a new arms race, with an 18 per cent increase in per capita military spending in the last two years alone.
At the end of 2021, more than 50 Nobel laureates had sent an open letter to governments around the world urging them to cut their military spending by two per cent annually. The money thus saved, they had argued, should be used to fight the after-effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and global poverty. Ironically, military spending went up by three per cent the same year, the International Institute for Strategic Studies' latest report noted.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has taken that arms race, already underway for seven years in Europe as data shows, to a new level. The countries that experienced relief at the end of the Cold War are now desperate to follow the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) 's two per cent of GDP defence spending mandate.
MILITARY SPENDING KEEPS GOING UP
The world's military spending nearly doubled since 2000. Global military expenditure jumped to around USD 2 trillion in 2021. More than half of this was from Nato countries.
The USA, as a Nato guardian, is still a dominant military power and holds 39 per cent (USD 754 billion) of military expenditure, followed by China at 11 per cent (USD 207 billion) and the United Kingdom at four per cent (USD 72 billion). The top 15 countries spend USD 1.5 trillion on defence, almost 81 per cent of the world’s total expenditure.
European countries have been the primary drivers of the new arms race, especially during the pandemic period (2019-2021). From 2019 to 2021, per capita military spending jumped from USD 396 to USD 469, an almost 18 per cent rise. Meanwhile, the home of Nato's biggest partners, North America, saw a four per cent jump in per capita military spending in the same period.
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