– **SIPRI institute report shows defense outlays grew 0.7% in 2021**
– **Growth trend in Europe seen intensifying after war in Ukraine**
Global military expenditure has surpassed $2 trillion per year for the first time, and looks set to rise further as European countries beef up their armed forces in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In 2021, countries spent a total of $2,113 billion on their militaries, up 0.7% in real terms from the year before, according to a report released Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI.
After a brief period of declining military spending between 2011 and 2014, outlays have increased for 7 consecutive years, according to SIPRI data. In the wake of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, several European governments have pledged a spending overhaul to boost their forces’ capabilities.
“Europe was already on an increasing trend, and this trend will accelerate and intensify,” Lucie Beraud-Sudreau, director of SIPRI’s military expenditure and arms production program, said in a phone interview. “Usually change happens slowly, until you are in a crisis and then change really happens. I think that’s where we are now.”
The upturn since 2015 has partly been fueled by higher spending in Europe, after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea raised the perceived threat level at the same time as the U.S. administration under Donald Trump increased pressure on NATO allies to spend more on their armed forces, Beraud-Sudreau said.
European spending in 2021 accounted for 20% of the global total, and China’s defense budget, the world’s second largest, is estimated to make up 14%.
“Tightening”
Europe has underinvested in defence for several decades, preferring social spending. About time.
We all failed
About god damn time. We’ve been sleeping on both ears for more than 20 years by now, and we’ve blindly convinced ourselves for far too long that Europe would never again face wars of any kind, even though there’s been signs of concern as early as Chechnya 2001.
5 comments
1
– **SIPRI institute report shows defense outlays grew 0.7% in 2021**
– **Growth trend in Europe seen intensifying after war in Ukraine**
Global military expenditure has surpassed $2 trillion per year for the first time, and looks set to rise further as European countries beef up their armed forces in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In 2021, countries spent a total of $2,113 billion on their militaries, up 0.7% in real terms from the year before, according to a report released Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI.
After a brief period of declining military spending between 2011 and 2014, outlays have increased for 7 consecutive years, according to SIPRI data. In the wake of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, several European governments have pledged a spending overhaul to boost their forces’ capabilities.
“Europe was already on an increasing trend, and this trend will accelerate and intensify,” Lucie Beraud-Sudreau, director of SIPRI’s military expenditure and arms production program, said in a phone interview. “Usually change happens slowly, until you are in a crisis and then change really happens. I think that’s where we are now.”
The upturn since 2015 has partly been fueled by higher spending in Europe, after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea raised the perceived threat level at the same time as the U.S. administration under Donald Trump increased pressure on NATO allies to spend more on their armed forces, Beraud-Sudreau said.
European spending in 2021 accounted for 20% of the global total, and China’s defense budget, the world’s second largest, is estimated to make up 14%.
“Tightening”
Europe has underinvested in defence for several decades, preferring social spending. About time.
We all failed
About god damn time. We’ve been sleeping on both ears for more than 20 years by now, and we’ve blindly convinced ourselves for far too long that Europe would never again face wars of any kind, even though there’s been signs of concern as early as Chechnya 2001.