World Military Spending Reaches Record High

Global military spending grew for the eighth consecutive year in 2022 to a record $2.24 trillion, with a sharp increase in Europe, mainly due to Russian and Ukrainian spending, a Swedish think tank said on Monday.

Spending globally increased by 3.7% in real terms, but military spending in Europe increased by 13% – the sharpest year-on-year increase in at least 30 years, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI, said in a report. Military aid to Ukraine and concerns about an increased threat from Russia “strongly influenced the spending decisions of many other states.”

The independent Swedish watchdog said that last year the top three arms spenders were the US, China, and Russia, which together accounted for 56% of global spending.

The “rise” is a sign that we live in an increasingly uncertain world, said Nan Tian, ​​a researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program.

Several states significantly increased their military spending following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while others announced plans to increase spending levels for periods of up to a decade. Some of the sharpest increases were seen in countries close to Russia: Finland (36%), Lithuania (27%), Sweden (12%), and Poland (11%).

Both Sweden and Finland jointly applied for NATO membership in May 2022, abandoning decades of non-alignment in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Although Finland has been recognized, Sweden’s bid to join NATO is stalled by opposition from Turkey and Hungary.

“While the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 certainly influenced military spending decisions in 2022, concerns about Russian aggression have been building for much longer,” said Lorenzo Scarazzato, a researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program.

“Many former Eastern Bloc states have more than doubled their military spending since 2014, the year Russia annexed Crimea.”

Russia has also increased its military spending. SIPRI said it grew by an estimated 9.2% in 2022, to about $86.4 billion. That equates to 4.1% of Russia’s gross domestic product in 2022, up from 3.7% the previous year.

Founded in 1966, SIPRI is an international institute dedicated to research on conflict, armaments, arms control, and disarmament.