Military spending

There are few other areas where one country so dominates. Because the GDP of the United States is larger than all others, and because it spends proportionately more on military expenditure, it dwarfs all others in absolute terms. According to the Stockholm Institute for Peace Research Incorporated, one of the two major world centres for compiling military data, in 2001 the United States' military expenditure comprised 36% of the world total, and its spending equalled the next nine countries' combined total.

Over the decades leading up to 2000, military spending as a proportion of GDP fell in all the selected countries. In some countries this meant an absolute decline in military spending. More commonly it meant that military spending grew less quickly than the economy.

The decline has not been as even as the decade intervals in the table might suggest. The United States increased its military spending greatly during the Reagan era, peaking at 6.6% of GDP in 1986. Similarly, according to SIPRI, world military expenditures reduced from 1987 to 1998, but then began climbing again. Almost certainly, since 11 September 2001 this has been at an accelerating pace. The ‘peace dividend’ which governments enjoyed from the reduction of military expenditures after the end of the Cold War now looks to be over.

It tends to be the larger countries that spend relatively more on their military, perhaps reflecting their own past roles as well as what they would say are their current responsibilities.