Despite the multiple escalating threats to humanity and
life on earth that urgently require cooperative global
action, military spending increased to its highest ever
recorded level last year – “an unprecedented rise”
according to new figures released by the Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) today, the
Global Day of Action on Military Spending.
SIPRI has
estimated global military expenditure last year was at least
$2,718 billion (USD, ±$4,500 billion NZD), an increase of
9.4% in real terms from 2022 and the steepest year-on-year
increase since the end of the cold war. [1]
On average, this is equivalent to more than $7.4 billion
(USD, ±$12.3 billion NZD) squandered every day on incessant
preparations for war.
While the horrific impacts of
this are obvious in Gaza, Ukraine, Myanmar, Sudan and far
too many other places over the past year, the devastation of
armed conflict is not the only casualty of military spending
– it has wider consequences that threaten us all.
By
way of comparison, for example, global funding for official
development (ODA) and humanitarian assistance last year
dropped by 7.1% in real terms to only 7.8% of the amount of
military spending [2], while on average more than 13,150
children under the age of five died every day from mainly
preventable causes [3] – lack of access to
adequate food, clean water and basic medicines: that is more
than nine tragically senseless deaths every
minute.
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This is one of the prices paid,
the collateral damage that is seldom talked about, for
maintaining armed forces in a state of combat readiness
around the world; an appalling situation that will worsen
this year as some states, including Britain, have announced
their ODA contribution will be diverted to increased
military spending.
As another comparison,
at COP 29 last year, pledges for loss and damage funding for
vulnerable countries most susceptible to the devastating
impacts of climate change amounted to less than three hours
of global military spending; while the total amount of
funding committed by the global Green Climate Fund is
equivalent to 0.61% of last year’s military expenditure.
[4]
It is inexcusable that many
states – including New Zealand – continue to prioritise
spending on combat-ready armed forces over human health and
wellbeing, and care for the planet. The opportunity cost of
military spending is multiple opportunities lost. Every
dollar of military expenditure is a dollar taken away from
socially useful spending – a dollar that could be used to
take real action on climate change, to ensure a decent
standard of living for all, and to ensure health and social
welfare systems can function well in national, regional or
global emergencies: it is a dollar that could be used to
save lives, to promote climate justice, flourishing
communities and care for the planet, rather than being spent
on endless preparations for war.
The multiple threats
to humanity and the planet – the rapidly escalating climate
catastrophe, rising sea levels, intensifying extreme weather
events, humanitarian disasters, horrific armed conflicts,
environmental degradation, collapsing ecosystems, loss of
biodiversity, species extinction, and increasing levels of
social inequity – are devastating lives and livelihoods
around the world; while highlighting and exacerbating
systemic social, economic and political inequities, and
exposing multiple flaws in government spending and other
priorities, including the folly of maintaining armed forces
in a constant state of combat readiness when there are so
many other more pressing needs.
It is obvious that
none of these threats can be addressed by increasing
military spending and militarisation, and that all are
compounded by the deadly priorities of those governments
that continue to cling to outdated narrow notions of
military security. Armed forces cannot turn the tide on
rising sea levels, and increased combat capability cannot
provide shelter from cataclysmic storms: instead,
militarisation is exacerbating the climate emergency and
other catastrophes facing humanity.
Now more than
ever, with the future of life on earth at stake, states must
work together cooperatively to find sustainable solutions,
instead of continuing to pour public money into wasteful
destructive military activity – the ultimate in
unsustainability, with military emissions estimated to be at
least 5.5% of the global total.
The five biggest
military spenders in 2024 were the United States (37%),
China (12%), Russia (5.5%), Germany (3.3%)and India (3.2),
which together accounted for 60 per cent of world military
spending; while expenditure by the 32 NATO member states was
55% of the global figure. Overall, average military
expenditure as a share of government expenditure in 2024 was
7.1%, and the global military burden (military spending as a
share of gross domestic product) was 2.5%.
[1]
New Zealand’s military
spending
While New Zealand does not feature in the
SIPRI rankings of the highest increases in military spending
this year as it did in 2023, that is simply because other
states increased their spending by more, not because New
Zealand’s military spending has decreased.
Despite
the urgent need for action on climate mitigation and
adaptation, as well as the desperate need for increased
funding for essential public services including health,
housing, education, and support for persons with
disabilities, successive New Zealand governments continue to
prioritise military spending.
In last year’s Budget,
$$5,790,195,000 (NZD) was allocated for military spending,
on average than $111.3 million every week.
[5] New Zealand’s enthusiasm for being an
integral part of the global cycle of violence has led to the
shameful spectre of military spending being at least doubled
over the next eight years, announced earlier this month as
New Zealand seeks to be a combat capable “force
multiplier” with “enhanced lethality and deterrent
effect” – a further threat to the possibility of
substantive action on human health and wellbeing, and on
climate justice both here in Aotearoa and in the region.
[6]
Pacific communities and leaders
have repeatedly stated that climate change is the
existential security threat to the region, but New
Zealand’s focus is on more militarisation rather than
climate action. The Pacific is already one of the most
highly militarised regions in the world, although only four
Pacific island nations have armed forces. The overwhelming
majority of militarisation in the Pacific comes from outside
the region – military bases, military live training
exercises, military alliances including AUKUS (specifically
named in the SIPRI Factsheet), military involvement in
extractive industries, and military occupation by the armed
forces of Indonesia, France and the United States, in
particular, along with Australia, Britain, China, Russia and
New Zealand. Clearly there are better things New Zealand
could be doing in the Pacific based on a dedicated focus on
demilitarisation so that existing threats can be properly
addressed and resourced, rather than fabricating
more.
The ongoing prioritising of military spending –
whether here in Aotearoa or around the world – is a
reflection of the deadly ideology of militarism, a
destructive mindset focused on obsolete concepts of military
security that continue to harm the future of humanity and
the planet, rather than real human security that meets the
needs of all.
It is totally reprehensible that
military spending continues to rise in the midst of the
rapidly worsening climate catastrophe, humanitarian crises,
and ongoing social inequities that are often caused, and
always made worse, by militarisation: a transition from
combat-ready armed forces to civilian agencies to meet the
needs of all peoples and the planet is long overdue.
[6]
The IPCC warned two years ago
that if we want to have a liveable future, taking the right
action now is needed for the transformational change
essential for a sustainable, equitable world
[8] – clearly it is time to invest in the
future for peoples and planet, and budget for peace, not
war. Unless there is an immediate and meaningful change in
the priorities of New Zealand and other states, militarism
will cost us the earth.
Resources and
references:
- Aotearoa New Zealand
Campaign on Military Spending, https://www.converge.org.nz/pma/gdams.htm - SIPRI,
https://www.sipri.org
[1]
‘Unprecedented rise in global military expenditure as
European and Middle East spending surges’, SIPRI, 28 April
2025, and ‘Trends in world military expenditure 2024’,
SIPRI Fact Sheet, April 2025, both are available at https://www.converge.org.nz/pma/gdams.htm
[2]
‘International aid falls in 2024 for first time in six
years’, OECD, 16 April 2025
[3]
‘Levels and trends in child mortality: 2024 Report’, UN
Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation, 24 March
2025
[4] See, for example, ‘COP of Peace?’, https://www.facebook.com/PeaceMovementAotearoa/posts/987598483397284
and Green Climate Fund dashboard, 26 April 2025
[5]
‘Budget 2024: Missed opportunity to slash wasteful
military spending’, Peace Movement Aotearoa, 30 May 2024,
https://www.facebook.com/PeaceMovementAotearoa/posts/870510595106074
[6]
‘Defence Capability Plan 2025’, NZ Government,
released 7 April 2025
[7] As
outlined, for example, in ‘Budget 2024: Missed opportunity
to slash wasteful military spending’, note
above.
[8] See, for example,
‘Urgent climate action can secure a liveable future for
all’, IPCC, 20 March 2023, https://www.ipcc.ch/2023/03/20/press-release-ar6-synthesis-report
