Abstract
Throughout most of the post-World War II period, the amount of resources — human, financial and material — devoted to military sectors around the world has increased steadily; in some years the rate of increase has been quite rapid. By 1983, world military expenditure (measured in 1982 US dollars) was estimated by the United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency to have reached $778 billion. Between 1963 and 1983, the countries of the world spent some $12 539 billion on their armed forces (again measured in 1982 US dollars). As the sums devoted to the military sector have grown, voices have increasingly been raised, particularly within the United Nations system, that the global economy has been distorted by this use of resources and would greatly benefit from a re-ordering of governmental priorities which would enable expenditure on the armed forces to be reduced.
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References
Common Security: A Programme for Disarmament (London: Pan, 1982) pp. 178–80.
E. Hutchful, ‘Disarmament and Development: An African View’, IDS Bulletin 16:4 (October 1985) p. 62.
See also R. Luckham, ‘Militarization in Africa’, in Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, World Armaments and Disarmament, SIPRI Yearbook 1985 (London: Taylor and Francis, 1985), p. 295.
Nicole Ball, Third-World Security Expenditure: A Statistical Compendium, C 10250-M5, (Stockholm: National Defence Research Institute, May 1984).
Ibid, pp. 55, 65–6, 83–4, 100–101.
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M. Leitenberg, ‘The Impact of the Worldwide Confrontation of the Great Powers: Aspects of Military Intervention and the Projections of Military Power’, in Georges Fischer (ed.) Armament-Development-Human Rights-Disarmament (Brussels: Establissements Bruylant, 1985) pp. 445–51.
Nicole Ball, Third-World Security Expenditure, op. cit., pp. 15–19.
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For example, Resolutions 380 (V); 914 (X); 1837 (XVII); 2397 (XXIII); 2526 and 2601 (XXIV; 2667 and 2685 (XXV); 3470 (XXX); 31/68; 34/88; Economic and Social Conse-quencies of the Arms Race and of Military Expenditures, A/32/88/Rev. 1; Reduction of the Military Budgets of States Permanent Members of the Security Council by 10 per cent and Utilization of Part of the Funds Thus Saved to Provide Assistance to Developing Countries, A/9770/ Rev. 1; and Study on the Relationship between Disarmament and Development. Report of the Secretary-General, A/36/356, 5 October 1981.
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United Nations, Committee on Planning, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Industrialization for New Development Needs, New York: 1974, summarised in G. Meier (ed.) Leading Issues in Economic Development (New York, 3rd ed: Oxford University Press, 1976) p. 670.
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© 1988 Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
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Ball, N. (1988). Military Expenditures, International Economic Relations and Détente. In: Rotblat, J., Valki, L. (eds) Coexistence, Cooperation and Common Security. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19369-1_23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19369-1_23
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