Worldwide Militarization
Total global military expenditure reached 2.44 trillion US-Dollar in 2023, an increase of around seven per cent in real terms from 2022. This was the steepest year-on-year increase since 2009. The 10 largest spenders in 2023 – led by the USA, China and Russia – all increased their military spending, according to new data on global military spending published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Hence, the imperialists’ and their lackeys’ armament against the peoples of the world again increased massively midst the sharpening of all the contradictions in today’s world, especially the one between imperialism and oppressed nations and peoples, but they also keep on preparing for a possible Third World War as result of the struggle for re-division of the world among the parasites. As SIPRI stated: “The unprecedented rise in military spending is a direct response to the global deterioration in peace and security […] States are prioritizing military strength but they risk an action–reaction spiral in the increasingly volatile geopolitical and security landscape.”
In 2023 the 31 NATO members accounted for 1.34 trillion US-Dollar, equal to 55 per cent of the world’s military expenditure. Military spending by the USA rose by 2.3 per cent to reach 916 billion US-Dollar in 2023, representing 68 per cent of total NATO military spending. This way Yankee imperialism maintains as the main enemy of the peoples of the world, also through the NATO alliance it leads.
China, the world’s second largest military spender, allocated an estimated 296 billion US-Dollar to the military in 2023, an increase of 6.0 per cent from 2022. This was the 29th consecutive year-on-year rise in China’s military expenditure.
Russia’s military spending increased by 24 per cent to an estimated 109 billion US-Dollar in 2023, marking a 57 per cent rise since 2014, the year that Russia annexed Crimea. In 2023 Russia’s military spending made up 5.9 per cent of its gross domestic product, GDP.
Ukraine was the eighth largest spender in 2023, after a spending surge of 51 per cent to reach 64.8 billion US-Dollar on its own. This gave Ukraine a military burden (percentage of the GDP) of 37 per cent and represented 58 per cent of total government spending. Ukraine’s very own military spending in 2023 was 59 per cent the size of Russian imperialism’s. However, Ukraine also received at least $35 billion in military ‘aid’ during the year. This and Ukraine’s own military spending were equivalent to about 91 per cent of Russian spending.
According to the report German imperialism spent 66.8 billion US-Dollar in 2023 for its military and was ranked the seventh biggest spender, overtaking France in the last year. It was estimated that Germany will become in perspective the fourth biggest spender in military expenditures if it reaches its self-proclaimed aim of spending two per cent of its GDP on the military. Hence, it will become the biggest spender all across western and central Europe.
Israel’s military spending – the second largest in the region after Saudi Arabia – grew by 24 per cent to reach 27.5 billion US-Dollar in 2023. In Mexico, military expenditure reached 11.8 billion US-Dollar in 2023, a 55 per cent increase from 2014. Allocations to the Guardia Nacional (National Guard) – a militarized force supposedly used “to curb criminal activity”, but in fact used in the war against the people – rose from 0.7 per cent of Mexico’s total military expenditure in 2019, when the force was created, to 11 per cent in 2023.
