Most states have not participated in military conflicts for quite some time, not to mention the absence of large-scale wars as such in the modern world. Therefore, voices are heard here and there calling for a significant reduction in defense budgets (usually they are officially called 'defense' rather than 'military', thereby apparently emphasizing their good purpose), and to send the freed-up funds to medicine, education, aid to Africa, the fight against global warming... The military themselves, on the contrary, almost always believe that there is underfunding of 'defense' programs. And here two questions arise: what amounts are sufficient for the army to successfully fulfill the tasks facing it, and is there a universal answer to the first question?
Some (but far from complete) idea of who spends how much on military needs can be given by official figures of military budgets - both absolute and relative.
By all measures, the United States allocates the most for defense. Excluding the cost of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush administration requested over $500 billion for military spending in the new fiscal year. As for Iraq and Afghanistan, initially Pentagon chief Robert Gates requested $170 billion for these needs, but later a Defense Department representative, Tina Jonas, told Reuters that these costs would likely be lower.
Against the backdrop of these figures, the defense budgets of other countries look much more modest. For example, Russia intends to spend just under $40 billion in a year, Britain - $67 billion, China - $59 billion, Japan - $52 billion. We emphasize that this is according to official data.
In relative terms, the US spends more than 4% of GDP on defense, China claims to spend 1.4% of GDP on these needs, Britain - 2.5%, Russia - 2.6%. Interestingly, for the US, the figure of more than 4% of GDP is lower than the levels recorded during other major military conflicts. For example, during the Vietnam War, US military spending was almost 9% of GDP, and under Ronald Reagan it reached 6%.
And here we encounter the first serious problem - whether to trust the figures given above. For example, the US categorically refuses to believe China on this issue, which, according to official data, increased military spending for the next year by 17% to $59 billion. This figure roughly corresponds to France's military spending, but raises doubts not only in Washington but also among China's regional neighbors.
According to estimates by the US Department of Defense, in 2007 China's military spending ranged from $97 to $139 billion. If these estimates are correct, then it is China, not Britain, that ranks second in the world in terms of the size of the defense budget.
Based on materials from BBC<\/a><\/strong><\/p>