Military spending soars 45pc in 10 years; US tops

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - World military spending grew 45 percent in the past decade, with the United States accounting for nearly half of all expenditure, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said Monday.
Military spending grew six percent last year alone, according to SIPRI's annual report.
In 2007, 1,339 billion dollars was spent on arms and other military expenditure, corresponding to 2.5 percent of global gross domestic product, or GDP — or 202 dollars for each of the world's 6.6 billion people.
The United States spends by far the most towards military aims, dishing out 547 billion dollars last year, or 45 percent of global expenditure.
Britain, China, France and Japan, the next in line of big spenders, lag far behind, accounting for just four to five percent of world military costs each.
"The factors driving increases in world military spending include countries' foreign policy objectives, real or perceived threats, armed conflict and policies to contribute to multilateral peacekeeping operations, combined with the availability of economic resources," the SIPRI report said.
The increase is both "excessive and obscene," Jayantha Dhanapala, a SIPRI member formerly in charge of disarmament affairs at the United Nations, told reporters in Stockholm, where the annual report was presented.
Registering the greatest regional growth was Eastern Europe, which saw its military spending skyrocket 162 percent between 1998 and 2007 and 15 percent from 2006 to 2007.
Russia, whose expenditure ballooned 13 percent last year, was responsible for 86 percent of the growth in the region, according to SIPRI.
North America meanwhile saw its military spending swell 65 percent, largely pulled by the United States, which has seen its costs grow 59 percent since the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.
"By 2007, US spending was higher than at any time since World War II," the SIPRI report said.