(Finance) – The global military spending total reached i 2.443 billion dollars in 2023with a increase of 6.8% in real terms compared to 2022. It was the steepest year-over-year increase since 2009. All of the top 10 spending countries in 2023 — led by the United States, China and Russia — increased their military spending. This is what emerges from the usual report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
For the first time since 2009, military spending is increased in all five geographic regions defined by SIPRI, with particularly high increases recorded in Europe, Asia, Oceania and the Middle East. “The unprecedented increase in military spending is a direct response to the global deterioration of peace and security,” said Nan Tian, senior researcher at SIPRI’s Military Spending and Arms Production Programme. “States are prioritizing military force, but they risk an action-reaction spiral in the increasingly unstable geopolitical and security landscape.”
Ukraine vs Russia
Russian military spending increased by 24% to reach $109 billion in 2023, marking a 57% increase compared to 2014, the year in which the Russia annexed Crimea. In 2023, Russian military spending accounted for 16% of total government spending, and its military burden (military spending as a percentage of gross domestic product, GDP) was 5.9%.
L’Ukraine it was the eighth-biggest spender in 2023, after a 51% surge in spending to reach $64.8 billion. This gave Ukraine a military burden of 37% and accounted for 58% of total government spending.
Ukraine’s military spending in 2023 was 59% of Russia’s. However, during the year Ukraine received at least 35 billion dollars in military aid, of which 25.4 billion from the United States. Together, this aid and Ukraine’s military spending equates to about 91% of Russian spending.
Commitments to NATO
In 2023 i 31 NATO members they represented 1,341 billion dollars, equal to 55% of global military spending. US military spending increased 2.3% to reach $916 billion in 2023, accounting for 68% of total NATO military spending. In 2023, most European NATO members increased their military spending. Their combined share of the NATO total was 28%, the highest in a decade. The remaining 4% came from Canada and Turkey.
“For European NATO states, the last two years of war in Ukraine have radically changed the security outlook – said Lorenzo Scarazzato, researcher at SIPRI’s Military Spending and Arms Production Program – This change in threat perception reflects in growing shares of GDP allocated to military spending, with the NATO 2% target increasingly seen as a baseline rather than a threshold to be achieved.”
A decade after NATO members formally committed to achievingtarget of spending 2% of GDP in the military, 11 of 31 NATO members have reached or exceeded this level in 2023, the highest number since the commitment was made. Another goal – to allocate at least 20% of military spending to “equipment spending” – was achieved by 28 NATO members in 2023, up from 7 in 2014.
The situation in Italy
Italian military spending decreased by 5.9% reaching 35.5 billion dollars in 2023, placing Italy in twelfth place globally; compared to 2014 there was an increase of 31%.
Italian military spending stabilized last year at1.6% of GDPcompared to 1.3% in 2014, and represented 1.5% of global spending.