Defence spending is an interesting topic, a lot of factors contribute, the wealth of the country, its overseas commitments, its neighbours, its foreign policy etc
Richer countries usually spend more, and more as a percentage of the money they have (i suppose thats the equivalent of disposable income), also larger countries tend to spend more.
America's spending is excessive, but to an extent it reflects its economy, geography and political situation. I'm not saying its right to be spending hundreds of billions on defence and i'm strongly against the production or design of small and usable nuclear weapons or the star wars project. But the sums aren't as ludicrous as they first seem.
Defence spending / GDP % :source Greek ministry of defence (they're very proud of spending lots of their money on defence :blink: )
France 2,6%
Greece 4,9%
Italy 1,9%
Luxemburg 0,8%
Holland 1,9%
Portugal 2,2%
Spain 1,3%
Sweden 2,2%
United Kingdom 2,4%
EU Average 1,83%
US 3.3%
Figures above and below don't match because they're figures for different years (only a couple of years apart)
http://www.steve.burrow.name/article/image/weapons1.gif
Top 5 countries by dollars spent on defence for each citizen.
Source: CDI and CIA World Factbook (CIA).
http://www.steve.burrow.name/article/image/weapons2.gif
Top 5 countries by percentage of GDP spent on defence.
Source: CDI and CIA.
http://www.steve.burrow.name/article/image/weapons3.gif
Top 5 countries by million dollars spent defending each km of border.
Source: CDI and CIA.
http://www.steve.burrow.name/article/image/weapons4.gif
Top 5 countries by thousands of dollars spent defending each km of territory.
http://www.steve.burrow.name/article/weapons.shtml
Edit:
(from same site as pics)Quote:
My conclusion having looked at all these figures is that some countries are spending a bit more on defence than they can justify for border and internal security. I guess they are taking their wider role as global policemen very seriously - like it or not. But as a final test I went back over the various Top 5 polls to see which country figures most frequently in each one. The answer was not, surprisingly, the USA or Israel (which featured in 4 out of the 5 poles shown here) - but rather the UK.
Seems a bit of a dodgy gamble, but I thought nukes aren't supposed to go off even if they're blown up?Quote:
I just don't see how bombing a nuclear bomb can result in any good.
