Financial resources dedicated by a state for purposes of national defense
Global military expenditure in 2023
Amilitary budget (ormilitary expenditure), also known as adefense budget, is the amount offinancial resources dedicated by astate to raising and maintaining anarmed forces or other methods essential for defense purposes.
Military budgets often reflect how strongly a country perceives the likelihood of threats against it, or the amount of aggression it wishes to conjure. It also gives an idea of how much financing should be provided for the upcoming fiscal year. The size of a budget also reflects the country's ability to fund military activities.[1] Factors include the size of that country's economy, other financial demands on that entity, and the willingness of that entity's government or people to fund such military activity. Generally excluded from military expenditures is spending oninternal law enforcement and disabled veteran rehabilitation. The effects of military expenditure on a nation's economy and society, and what determines military expenditure, are notable issues inpolitical science andeconomics. Generally, some suggest military expenditure is a boost to local economies.[2] Still, others maintain military expenditure is a drag on development.[3]
TheSaturday Review magazine in February 1898 outlined the levels of military expenditure as a percentage oftax revenue spent by the thengreat powers for the year 1897:[8]
United States: 17%.(SeeMilitary budget of the United States.) The United States has fluctuated for decades, depending on the conflict of the time. The first spike in defense spending, and in turn taxes, came during the very beginning of the 19th century.[9] During World War I, the United States spent 22% of gross domestic product, while during peacetime, the government spent on as little as 1% Gross Domestic Product (GDP).[10] This changed following World War II as the United States government were experiencing an immense fear of the expansion of communism and therefore heightened security on all fronts. This was supported by Americans as it brought upon them a sense of security and the 3.6% GDP they were contributing to was a large decrease from the whopping amounts of capital being spent during WWII that exceeded 41%, before decreasing to 10% during the Cold War and for about two more decades after, including the Vietnam War, before beginning to decrease in the 1970s down to 6%, then 5.5% in 1979 before beginning to steadily incline once again.[10][9] After 2001, though, and the September 11 terrorist attacks, defense spending spiked again, peaking at 5.7% in 2010.[10]
^Baron, Joshua (22 January 2014).Great Power Peace and American Primacy: The Origins and Future of a New International Order. United States: Palgrave Macmillan.ISBN978-1137299482.
^abBorch, Casey, and Michael Wallace. "Military Spending and Economic Well-Being in the American States: The Post-Vietnam War Era". Social Forces, vol. 88, no. 4, 2010, pp. 1727–1752. Oxford University Press,doi:10.1353/sof.0.0268. Accessed 15 October 2017.
^abcChantrill, Christopher. "What Is the Total US Defense Spending?" US Government Defense Spending History with Charts - a Www.usgovernmentspending.com Briefing, American Thinkers, 17 July 2011, www.usgovernmentspending.com/defense_spending
