World military spending exceeds $2 trillion, as United States, China, India, the United Kingdom, and Russia leading the way

*Paromita Das

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), global military spending increased to $2113 billion last year, with the United States, China, India, the United Kingdom, and Russia being the top five spenders.
According to SIPRI, total military expenditure increased 0.7% in real terms, with the United States, China, India, the United Kingdom, and Russia accounting for 62% of the total.
“World military spending reached record levels despite the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic,” SIPRI’s Dr Diego Lopes da Silva said.

Military spending rose during the first year of the pandemic.

Earlier, there was a 2.6 percent increase in global military spending that came in a year when global GDP shrank by 4.4 percent (according to the International Monetary Fund’s October 2020 projection), owing largely to the economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, military spending as a share of GDP reached a global average of 2.4 percent in 2020, up from 2.2 percent in 2019. This was the largest year-on-year increase in military spending since the global financial and economic crisis in 2009.
According to the think tank, the US military will spend $801 billion in 2021, a 1.4% decrease from the previous year; however, military research and development will increase by 24% between 2012 and 2021 as the US focuses on “next-generation technologies.”

Despite rising global military spending, some countries, such as Chile and South Korea, have explicitly reallocated a portion of their planned military spending to pandemic response. Several others, including Brazil and Russia, spent significantly less than their initial 2020 military budgets.

‘With some certainty, we can say that the pandemic had no significant impact on global military spending in 2020,’ said Dr Diego Lopes da Silva, Researcher with the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Programme. ‘It remains to be seen whether countries will maintain this level of military spending into the pandemic’s second year.’

The United States’ military spending continues to rise sharply in 2020.

Military spending in the United States is expected to reach $778 billion in 2020, a 4.4% increase over 2019. The United States, as the world’s largest military spender, accounted for 39% of total military expenditure in 2020. Following seven years of continuous reductions, the United States’ military spending increased for the third year in a row.

‘Recent increases in US military spending can be attributed primarily to heavy investment in R&D and several long-term projects such as modernising the US nuclear arsenal and large-scale arms procurement,’ said Alexandra Marksteiner, a researcher with SIPRI’s Arms and Military Expenditure Program.

‘This reflects growing concerns about perceived threats from strategic competitors such as China and Russia, as well as the Trump administration’s push to strengthen what it saw as a depleted US military.’

China’s military spending rises for the 26th year in a row.

China’s military spending, which is the world’s second highest, is expected to reach $252 billion in 2020. This represents a 1.9% increase over 2019 and a 76% increase over the decade 2011–20. China’s military spending has increased for 26 years in a row, the longest streak of uninterrupted increases by any country in the SIPRI Military Expenditure Database.
‘Because of its positive GDP growth last year, China stands out as the only major spender in the world not to increase its military burden in 2020, despite increasing its military expenditure,’ said Dr Nan Tian, SIPRI Senior Researcher. ‘The country’s long-term military modernization and expansion plans, in line with a stated desire to catch up with other leading military powers,’ were according to the report.

China’s military budget increased by 4.7% in 2021, with President Xi’s regime allocating an estimated $293 billion. According to military watchers, the Japanese government increased military spending by $7 billion.
“China’s increasing assertiveness in and around the South and East China Seas has become a major driver of military spending in countries such as Australia and Japan,” according to SIPRI.

As a result of the economic downturn, more NATO members exceeded spending targets.

In 2020, nearly all North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members saw their military burden increase. As a result, 12 NATO members spent 2% or more of their GDP on their militaries, exceeding the Alliance’s guideline spending target, compared to 9 in 2019. France, for example, the world’s eighth-largest spender, surpassed the 2% mark for the first time since 2009.

‘Although more NATO members spent more than 2% of GDP on their militaries in 2020, this was likely due to the economic fallout from the pandemic rather than a deliberate decision to meet the Alliance’s spending target,’ said Lopes da Silva, Researcher with the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Programme.

Russia, which is at war with Ukraine, increased its military spending by 2.9% last year to $65.9 billion. According to SIPRI, Russia’s military spending increased for the third year in a row.

According to SIPRI’s Lucie Béraud-Sudreau, “high oil and gas revenues helped Russia increase its military spending in 2021.”

Russia has also increased its national defense budget line, despite the fact that Ukraine’s military spending has increased by 72% since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
India spent $76.6 billion, ranking third in the world.

In comparison to 2020, India’s military spending increased by 0.9%. India’s military spending has increased by 33% since 2012, with 64% of the capital outlay in the military budget last year earmarked for domestically produced arms.