10 Countries With The Fastest Growing Militaries
Military spending in
the United States totaled $596 billion in 2015, far and away the largest annual
military expenditure in the world at nearly three times that of second-place
China. While the U.S. military will likely not be outspent any time soon,
American defense spending has declined each year since its most recent peak in
2010. Meanwhile, a number of other countries have substantially increased their
military budgets in recent years.
The nations of the
world spent $1.68 trillion on their militaries in 2015, up slightly from 2014,
the first global increase since 2011. Based on annual military expenditures
estimated by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), 24/7
Wall St. reviewed the 10 countries with the largest one-year military
expenditure increases as well as the 10 nations with the largest military
spending declines.
Short-term spikes in
military spending are often in response to heightened regional tensions or a
country’s ongoing involvement in a conflict. According to Dr. Sam
Perlo-Freeman, senior researcher at SIPRI, “It’s not surprising that in light
both of ongoing conflicts and the rebuilding post conflict that large increases
of military spending are going on” in these war-torn areas.
Violent conflicts help
explain the one-year military spending growths in nearly all of these nations
with the largest spending increases. Perceived threats from Russia, which used
its enormous military might to annex Crimea in 2014, likely triggered Poland’s
decision to increase military spending. The Philippines is another example. The
small island nation increased its military budget by over 25% last year due in
large part to heightened tensions with China over fishing rights in the South
China Sea.
Ultimately, the
strength of a nation’s economy dictates the growth of its military spending. In
Uruguay, Paraguay, and several other South American nations, a conflict was not
necessary to trigger defense spending sprees. Just as the largest military
spenders tend to be among the wealthiest nations in the world, strong economic
conditions in Uruguay and Paraguay largely explain the defense spending
increases in those nations.
By the same logic, a
country mired in violent conflict may not be able to expand its military
spending. War and violence are still raging in Afghanistan, for example.
However, the withdrawal of international aid has led to the nation’s 19.0%
military spending drop. Similarly, in South Sudan, where the military has its
hands full with civil war, military spending dropped by 25.4% because of poor
economic conditions. Well over half of South Sudan’s government revenue comes
from oil, and the precipitous drop in oil prices largely explains the spending
decrease.
This was the case in a
number of the nations recording the largest military spending declines. Most
notably perhaps are Oman and Venezuela, the nations with the fastest and 10th
fastest shrinking military budgets. Both of these countries are major oil producers.
While military spending in these nations dropped considerably over the last
year, their military spending as a share of GDP actually rose over the same
period, reflecting the sharp decline in their economic output.
To identify the
countries with the fastest rising and fastest falling military budgets, 24/7
Wall St. reviewed the increases in military expenditures from 2014 through 2015
as estimated by the Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in its most recent annual
“Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2015” report. We only considered
countries with military expenditures of at least $100 million. Spending as a
share of GDP and absolute spending figures for 2015, 2014, and 2006 also came
from SIPRI. Military expenditure data include all current and capital
expenditure on:
• The armed forces,
including peacekeeping forces
• Defence ministries and other government agencies engaged in defence projects
• Paramilitary forces, when judged to be trained and equipped for military operations
• Military space activities
• Military and civil personnel, including retirement pensions and social services for military personnel
• Operations and maintenance
• Procurement
• Military research and development
• Military aid (in the military expenditure of the donor country)
• Defence ministries and other government agencies engaged in defence projects
• Paramilitary forces, when judged to be trained and equipped for military operations
• Military space activities
• Military and civil personnel, including retirement pensions and social services for military personnel
• Operations and maintenance
• Procurement
• Military research and development
• Military aid (in the military expenditure of the donor country)
We also considered
2015, 2014, and 2006 per capita GDP from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Gross domestic product is based on purchasing power parity (PPP) and is in
current international dollars.
These are the
countries with the fastest growing (and shrinking) military expenditures:
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