World military spending tops $1 trillion

Catholic New Times, July 3, 2005

STOCKHOLM -- International military spending rose again in 2004, growing by five per cent to US$1.04 trillion, as the U.S. made "massive" budgetary allocations for its war on terror, a leading research institute said last month.

With US$455 billion-worth of expenditures, the U.S. accounted for almost half of the world's purchases--more than the combined total of the 32 next most powerful nations, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

"The major determinant of the world trend in military expenditure is the change in the United States, with its 47 per cent of the world total," the Swedish government-funded institute said.

U.S. spending has increased rapidly between 2002 and 2004--nearly four per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP)--largely due to military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, in its annual yearbook, SIPRI claimed the country's payments still remained well below its Cold War peak of more than six per cent.

Countries such as the United States, Britain, France, Japan and China, continue to spend 64 per cent of the world's total. China and India, according to the institute, were the two main recipients of conventional arms in 2004.