The global military expenditure has seen a constant increase despite the changing priorities of the world. Even when we have moved to a regime of unprecedented global interconnectedness through flourishing trade, countries have not left behind the possibility of a big probable conflict.

This is what has led to an arms race with the last decade seeing the highest global expenditure on the military to the tune of $1917 billion. That figure is shocking on many levels.

This is despite the constant rhetoric that it is looking to scale down its global involvement. It will be interesting to see which countries have the highest military expenditure in the world.

Let’s find out.

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WHICH COUNTRIES HAVE THE HIGHEST MILITARY EXPENDITURE?

The following data has been released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

South Korea

South Korea’s military budget for 2019 was $43.9 billion. It witnessed an increase of 7.5%.

Japan

Japan spent $47.6 billion on its defence forces. Surprisingly, the budget witnessed a fall of 0.1%.

United Kingdom

The UK allocated $48.7 billion to its defence budget. This figure was the same as before.

Germany

The European country spent $49.3 billion on its military. Germany increased its defence budget by 10%.

“The growth in German military spending can partly be explained by the perception of an increased threat from Russia, shared by many North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member states,” says Diego Lopes da Silva. Diego is a researcher at SIPRI.

France

French military received $50.1 billion in funding in 2019. This figure experienced a rise of 1.6%.

Saudi Arabia

With a sharp 10 billion difference from France, Saudi Arabia’s military spending stood at $61.9 billion. This figure was a whopping 16% lower than before.

Russia

The global superpower spent $65.1 billion on its defence budget in 2019. Russia increased its spending by 4.5% in 2019.

“At 3.9 per cent of its GDP, Russia’s military spending burden was among the highest in Europe in 2019,” says Alexandra Kuimova. Kuimova is also a researcher at SIPRI.

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India

The Asian country spent $71.1 billion on its military in 2019. India increased its defence budget by 6.8% in 2019.

According to Siemon T. Wezeman –

“India’s tensions and rivalry with both Pakistan and China are among the major drivers for its increased military spending.”

Wezeman is a SIPRI Senior Researcher.

China

Drastically increasing the global defence budget, China spent $261 billion on its military in 2019. The Chinese increased their spending by 5.1%.

USA

The highest military spender in the world, the USA spent a whopping $732 billion in 2019. They increased their spending by 5.3%. The shocking thing about the USA’s military spending is that the combined military spending of the other 9 countries on this list still falls nearly $33 billion short of America’s spending.

These are pretty much evidence of current global politics. The USA remains the global superpower but China is following closely behind. India remains key to US interests in Asia and a solution for the rise of the Chinese