World military spending reaches all-time high of $2.24 trillion
Al JazeeraApr 24, 2023
Military spending worldwide reached an all-time high of $2.24T last year, a leading defense think tank said in a new report issued Monday.
In its annual report on global military expenditure, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said military spending has risen for the eighth consecutive year and jumped by 3.7% in real terms since the previous year.
This rise in global military spending has been largely fuelled by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Unsurprisingly that neighboring countries such as Finland, Lithuania, and Poland have had to ramp up spending to keep the Russian threat at bay.
The US — by far the world's biggest military spender — needs to rethink this. Every year, the figure rises without anyone stopping to ask if such an increase is really necessary. US spending on the military will likely exceed $1T in the coming decade. Congress needs to re-evaluate.
There's a 50% chance that at least 2.19% of world GDP will be spent on military expenses in 2030, according to the Metaculus prediction community.