New data out on global military spending in 2021
Speaking Security Newsletter | Advisory Note for Activists and Candidates, n°156 | 25 April 2022
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Situation
According to new data by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, total US military expenditures exceeded $800 billion in 2021, accounting for about 38% of that year’s global total.
The organization adopts a broad definition of military spending that includes spending on military aid and other programs that are funded outside of the Pentagon budget. So for example, the FY2021 omnibus spending bill that Trump signed into law contained $740.5 billion for the Pentagon, but if you include military-related programs, too, then you’d get something close to the reported $801 billion, depending on how closely your interpretation of what qualifies as military-related expenditures matches their’s.
By comparison, Biden’s proposed military budget for FY2023 requests $813 billion, and that’s under a comparatively narrow definition of military spending.
-Stephen (@stephensemler; stephen@securityreform.org)
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