One factual note: the yearly military spending of the United States, according to the CIA World Factbook, is $276.7 billion. That is 3.2% of the American gross domestic product. That figure probably does not include all funding for things related to the military – like subsidies to defense companies, but it offers a reasonable figure for comparison. The same source lists world military spending as about $750 billion for 1999 (the most current figure available): 2 percent of the world domestic product. This indicates that America spends more than average on the military, but that they do not in fact spend more on the military than the rest of the world put together.

As to the claim that they are the “most militarized nation in the world”, North Korea spends a whopping 33.9% of its GDP on the military, though its military forces are certainly not as powerful or extensive of those of the United States. China spends 4.3% of GDP on the military, also a higher percentage than that spent by the United States. Even Chile spends a higher percentage of its GDP on the military than the United States, according to the Economist newspaper as cited below.

One should rightly question the figures as reported by the CIA, given an obvious potential conflict of interest between providing accurate information and doing their job as an intelligence agency. Still, the fact that U.S. military spending is much higher in absolute terms without making the United States the “most militarized power in the world” and without using the largest share of GDP when compared to other countries holds. One article that maintains this, and that is intimately related to the present discussion, is “The Acceptability of American Power” available here: (http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=1188823) from The Economist.

Sources:

The CIA World Factbook: Online Edition
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html

The Economist Newspaper:
Retooling August 16, 2001. http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=S%26%28%28%3C%2CPA%23%23%0A


- posted by Milan @ 12:51 AM