USA: Beyond Trump: The US’s Wrong-Headed Priorities

Reflections on gargantuan levels of military spending, pseudo “efficiency”-minded corporate outsourcing and an ill-fated obsession with American exceptionalism.

Read more at:
https://www.theglobalist.com/united-states-society-inequality-healthcare-coronavirus-corporate-profits-american-exceptionalism-defense-spending/

Germany: Should Germany Really Have to Spend More on Defense?

It is not on track to meet NATO commitments, but Germany argues it is paying in other ways.

In 2014, at the request of U.S. President Obama, all NATO member countries including Germany pledged to spend 2% of GDP on defense by 2024. The Trump Administration has made more vocal requests.
2. Germany spends just 1.1% of its GDP on defense as of 2016, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
3. The Defense Ministry plans to raise that share to 1.22% in 2017, with additional commitments for marginal increases through 2020.
4. This would still be close to €25 billion short of 2% each year.
5. However, calls to increase German defense spending faster have been rejected by German foreign minister and Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel.
6. Germany’s foreign minister argues that spending on security extends to more than just military and defense, and includes development aid, climate change mitigation and spending on refugees.
7. Germany’s €19 billion in the 2017 budget for spending on refugee and asylum-seeker resettlement – many from countries of previous U.S. war operations, such as Afghanistan or Iraq – equals about 0.5% of GDP.
8. This resettlement spending thus makes up 1.75% – nearly 2% – when combined with projected direct defense spending.

Read more: Should Germany Really Have to Spend More on Defense? - The Globalist

U.S. Military Spending vs. the World

The U.S. outpaces all other nations in military expenditures. World military spending totaled more than $1.6 trillion in 2015. The U.S. accounted for 37 percent of the total.

U.S. military expenditures are roughly the size of the next seven largest military budgets around the world, combined.

In fiscal year 2015, military spending is projected to account for 54 percent of all federal discretionary spending, a total of $598.5 billion. Military spending includes: all regular activities of the Department of Defense; war spending; nuclear weapons spending; international military assistance; and other Pentagon-related spending.

Read more: U.S. Military Spending vs. the World

Ukraine: Europe Begins to Rethink Cuts to Military Spending - by Steven Erlanger

President Obama spent Wednesday in Brussels talking up the importance of the security relationship between Europe and the United States, but it is considered unlikely that Russia’s seizure of Crimea will prompt increased European military spending at a time of economic anemia and budget cuts.

NATO and the European Union regard the Russian move in Ukraine as a wake-up call, a reminder that hard power can easily trump 21st-century assumptions about Europe as a sphere of trade, international law and cooperation.

Despite the newly militant tone, NATO members will continue to spend paltry amounts on defense, experts say. But there is likely to be a slowdown in cuts and a renewed debate on how that money is spent. That debate has already started in Britain.

Read more: Europe Begins to Rethink Cuts to Military Spending - NYTimes.com

Weapons Industry: Global weapons spending slows as Europe slashes military budgets

Increases in military spending slowed down considerably last year under pressure from the global recession, while European countries slashed military spending in 2009, a leading think-tank said Monday.

Global military expenditure rose in 2010 by 1.3 percent in real terms, to reach a record $1.6 trillion (1.1 trillion euros), according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), but the figure represented the lowest growth rate since 2001 - and a marked slowdown from the 5.9 percent global spending increase in 2009.

European militaries meanwhile spent $382 billion for the year - 2.8 percent less than in 2009 - as governments attempted to rein in their budget deficits. 

For more: Global weapons spending slows as Europe slashes military budgets | World | Deutsche Welle | 11.04.2011