Dr Stuart Parkinson is Co-chair of the UK branch of the Global Campaign on Military Spending (GCOMS-UK) and Executive Director of Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR).
New data on global military spending – published today – shows that last year it grew by 3.7% above inflation to a massive $2.24 trillion. The UK’s percentage increase – 3.7% – was higher than its largest NATO allies – the USA, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and Turkiye. The new spending data has been published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). 1
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has, of course, been a major factor in driving increases in the budgets of those nations and NATO countries – with a knock-on effect in other parts of the world. Despite the considerable rise of 9.2% in the Russian budget, it remains dwarfed by NATO spending – which is over 14 times its size.
The data reinforces the picture painted by GCOMS-UK’s analysis of the British government’s budget in March. 2 This revealed an unpublicised increase of £1.5bn in 2022-23 compared with previously announced figures – which had themselves been considerably increased due to new military equipment spending and efforts to counter high inflation. This analysis also pointed out that the latest percentage rise in military spending had been higher than that for health, education, welfare, environment, overseas aid, or any other government department – and this during a cost-of-living crisis, with widespread strike action by public sector workers who are being told by the government that inflation-matching pay rises are unaffordable. Another notable figure from this analysis was that UK government spending on the military was 8.7 times higher than that on energy security and climate change for the financial year 2022-23. With the UN Security-General declaring a ‘Code Red for Humanity’ based on the latest scientific evidence on the climate threat – and calling on industrialised nations to bring forward their net zero plans by a decade 3 – this high spending ratio is clearly a serious problem. Indeed, the situation has been made worse by recent British government approval for the exploitation of new oil, gas, and coal fields, and the prioritisation given to energy technologies of particular interest to the military such as nuclear power and synthetic fuels.
The new SIPRI data signals that the governments of most of the wealthiest nations in the world – including the UK – continue to prioritise military spending at the expense of measures that bring real security – such as tackling poverty and inequality and the multiple environmental crises. This is exemplified, for example, by a report by the World Food Programme which estimated that the food price inflation caused by the war in Ukraine had forced an extra 47 million people across the world into ‘acute food insecurity’. 4
Hence, GCOMS-UK echoes the call from the International Peace Bureau (IPB) 5 urging all governments to prioritise the search for peace, a halt to arms races, and rapid, deep reductions in military spending.
Coinciding with the publication of the SIPRI figures are the Global Days of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS) co-ordinated by the IPB. GCOMS-UK is supporting GDAMS through protests around the country. 6
References
- SIPRI (2023) World military expenditure reaches new record high as European spending surges.
- GCOMS-UK (2023). https://demilitarize.org.uk/military-spending-boosted-more-than-health-education-environment-or-overseas-aid/
- UN News (2023). https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/03/1134777
- World Food Programme (2022). https://www.wfp.org/publications/update-global-food-crisis-2022
- IPB (2023). https://www.ipb.org/read-the-appeal-gdams-2023-war-costs-us-the-earth/
- GCOMS-UK (2023). https://demilitarize.org.uk/events/list/?tribe-bar-date=2023-03-12
