Report predicts ‘new era of contested power’ for world
Instability and spending on military rising
LONDON — Worldwide military spending surged by 9 percent in 2023 to hit a record $2.2 trillion as multiple conflicts ratcheted up global insecurity, according to a report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies released Tuesday.
The report, the institute’s 65th annual “Military Balance” publication, also estimated that military spending would set another record this year as these conflicts continued to make their impact felt.
Speaking to journalists in London, institute director general Bastian Giegerich said that multiple factors represented “a picture of strategic instability and a new era of contested power.” He cited Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, China’s military modernization, the conflicts in the Middle East, and military coups in Africa.
The report also highlighted the intense destructiveness of war. In Ukraine, the institute estimated that Russia has lost roughly 3,000 main battle tanks since it invaded in February 2022. Those losses exceeded the total of tanks in Russia’s active inventory before the war, forcing it to pull older vehicles out of storage.
Meanwhile, NATO member states’ defense spending has risen to about 50 percent of the global total, the report stated, a staggering proportion for a military alliance whose member states account for less than an eighth of the world’s population.
The new estimates of growing global military budgets coincide with repeated remarks by former president Donald Trump on the levels of US allies’ defense spending. He said at one weekend campaign rally that he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to NATO members who didn’t spend the alliance’s target of 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense.
While the United States still accounts for the bulk of NATO defense spending, the Londonbased institute found that nonUS members have collectively increased their military spending by 32 percent in the decade since Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, with most of the growth occurring in the past two years.
Last year, 10 European Union member states reached the stated objective of spending 2 percent of their GDP on defense, up from eight the year before. All European NATO members hit the benchmark of allotting 20 percent of their spending to equipment, the report found.
The alliance has also been boosted by Finland, a new member as of last year and one with a large standing army, and by the likely accession of Sweden. Several large nations, including France and Germany, have announced long-term plans to boost spending.
The institute said that inflation and economic disruption have blunted the impact of some of the increases in defense spending, while a spike in demand has run into the reality that “European arms production was not geared for wartime.”
While the West is spending more on military budgets, so are Russia and China. And with lower costs and heavy state involvement in the defense industry, they often appear to be getting more for their money.
Russia’s total military expenditure increased by almost 30 percent last year as the war in Ukraine ground on, the institute reported, with the Kremlin now estimated to be spending roughly 7.5 percent of its GDP on the military. The country has significantly overhauled its defense industry since it became apparent it was not prepared for the war in Ukraine.
Russia’s total military expenditure was estimated at $108 billion in 2023, more than three times the expenditure by Ukraine ($31 billion). Unlike Russia, however, Ukraine has often been able to replace lost equipment with better, Westernsupplied equivalents, the report noted.