[News] US makes up c 40% of global military spending, 10x Russia, 3x China

[Anti-Imperialist News]

geopoliticaleconomy.com
<https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/05/02/us-military-spending-russia-china/>
US makes up c 40% of global military spending, 10x Russia, 3x China
Ben Norton - May 1, 2023
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[image: image.png]

The United States was responsible for nearly 40% of global military
spending in 2022.

The US military spent $877 billion, 10 times more than Russia ($86.4
billion), and three times more than China ($292 billion).

US military expenditure in 2022 was bigger than the next 10 largest
spenders combined
<https://stephensemler.substack.com/p/us-accounts-for-nearly-40-of-global>.

This means the Pentagon spent more than China, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia,
Britain, Germany, France, South Korea, Japan, and Ukraine combined.

This is according to data published this April by the Sweden-based Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute
<https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2023/world-military-expenditure-reaches-new-record-high-european-spending-surges>
(SIPRI).

SIPRI calculated that the planet’s total military expenditure was $2.24
trillion in 2022.

The United States, at $877 billion, thus made up 39.2% of total global
military spending.

[image: world military expenditure US graph 2022]

The US-led NATO alliance spent a total of $1.23 trillion, meaning it was
responsible for just over half (55%) of global military spending.

SIPRI reported that real military spending in Europe, adjusted for
inflation, is at the highest levels since 1989, toward the end of the first
cold war.

Europe is the region with the fastest growing military spending, the study
found.

[image: world military expenditure region graph 2022]

Business Insider noted that the US federal government only dedicated $76.4
billion in discretionary spending for education
<https://www.businessinsider.com/us-defense-military-budget-compared-federal-education-spending-2023-4>
in 2022, meaning it spent over 10 times as much on the military.

The Joe Biden administration has requested a mere $90 billion for education
in 2024, compared to $842 billion for the military, Business Insider
pointed out.

Moreover, all of these figures could be very conservative, given the US
Department of Defense is notoriously opaque in its accounting.

Bloomberg reported that the Pentagon made $35 trillion in “accounting
adjustments”
<https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pentagon-35-trillion-accounting-black-231154593.html>
in 2019, as well as $30.7 trillion in adjustments in 2018.

These irregularities in the Pentagon’s accounting are larger than the
entire US economy.

The US Department of Defense has failed every audit it has ever tried.
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