8. Military expenditure

Summary

Aggregate world military spending continued to decline in 1995. However, heavy reductions in the Western industrialized countries and Russia distorted the overall picture. Military spending continues to increase in certain countries and regions, notably in the Middle East and South-East Asia. Malaysia, for example, showed a 6.5 per cent increase in military spending over 1994. Military spending in India and Pakistan, which has grown quickly in recent years, appears to have stabilized in 1995. Many developing countries continue to maintain military expenditure at levels which are out of proportion to their legitimate security requirements. In some cases, internal conflict is driving military expenditure to ever higher levels, thereby limiting the opportunities for governments to address the socio-economic inequalities which are so often the root cause of violent instability. Security expenditure in Algeria has dramatically increased - by 144 per cent in real terms over 1994 - as a result of the Islamic insurgency.

The lack of reliable information on defence spending for many important countries and regions of the world continues to make it impossible to determine a meaningful figure for total world military spending. Even where official data are available, their reliability must often be seriously questioned. China, in particular, presents the analyst with significant problems in determining the accuracy and reliability of its reported data on military spending. A promising development is that Russia, for the first time, submitted data on its military spending to the UN in 1995 for the years 1992-94. Nevertheless, uncertainty about information on inflation and other economic developments makes it particularly difficult in the case of Russia to assess the country's military spending burden accurately.

In addition to its traditional coverage of military spending in NATO and Russia, the chapter devotes a section to security needs and policies in Central Asia with particular attention to Kazakhstan. Case studies of South Africa and Central America continue SIPRI's coverage of military expenditure issues in developing regions.

Appendix 8A. Tables of military expenditure

PAUL GEORGE, BENGT-GÖRAN BERGSTRAND AND EVAMARIA LOOSE-WEINTRAUB

Appendix 8A contains tables of world military expenditure.

Appendix 8B. Sources and methods

Appendix 8B explains the sources and methods of the military expenditure data collection.