European military spending must be more equal

A glance over the latest statistics from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, on the world’s fifteen biggest spenders on armaments and defence, provides a quick snapshot of the importance some countries place on military power. Overall, the world spends in excess of $1 trillion per year, and this figure has grown by $100 billion per year for the past few years. Almost ninety percent of that money is spent by Western powers. Here are the Stockholm Institute’s statistics, in tabular format:

	Spending ($bil.)	Spending per person ($)	Population (mil.)[1]
United States	582.7	1,756	303
European Union	301.0 [2]	614	490
Britain	59.2	990	60
France	53.1	875	64
China	49.5	37	1,320
Germany	37.0	341	82
Russia	34.7	244	142
Italy	29.9	514	59
Saudi Arabia	29.0	1,152	24
India	23.9	21	1,169
South Korea	21.9	455	48
Australia	13.8	676	21
Canada	13.5	414	33
Brazil	13.4	71	187
Spain	12.3	284	45

European Union Member States in bold.
European Union in italics.
[1] Official statistics
[2] Estimate, 2007

At first, these statistics probably do not seem that out of the ordinary. At the top is the United States, spending almost the same as the rest of the world combined, followed in distant succession by the United Kingdom, France, China, Germany, and so on. It might surprise many people that the amalgamated spending of the European Union’s Member States is so high—now comparable to American levels of defence spending in the late 1990s. In comparison to the Americans, however, the Europeans get far less firepower for their expenditure, this being a product of costly and wasteful duplication across twenty-seven different armed forces and defence ministries. Indeed, some have even estimated that any one military item costs Europeans ten times more than Americans in order to get a comparable output of firepower!

What really should stand out though is Spain. Strategies such as ‘naming and shaming’ are not normally appropriate when discussing fellow Europeans, but on this occassion the problem warrants closer attention. While thirty years ago, Spain was economically impoverished and recovering from the iron rule of General Franco’s dictatorship, it is today an advanced, affluent and democratic component of the European Union. With the continent’s fifth largest economy, and one of the highest levels of personal income in the world, Spain must take more responsibility alongside Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands for the security and defence of the European Union.

The statistics are as decisive as they are damning: Even though Spain’s population is only fifteen million people smaller than those of Italy, Britain and France, its defence spending is between a fifth and sixth of either the United Kingdom or France’s. Spending per person seems even worse. Whereas every Briton or French citizen contributes nearly $1,000 each to the upkeep of their armed forces, Spaniards spend a lousy $287 each. This sorry level of expenditure is even more astonishing given that Spain’s geopolitical location makes it very close to the north of Africa, a region of simmering tensions, problems and instabilities.

Spain is not the only culprit, of course. A gaggle of other Member States are also shirking their military responsibilities. The consequences of this are that the burden of the security and defence of the European Union is left to the larger and more globally oriented Member States, like Britain and France. Yet one group of European citizens should not have to foot the bill for the security of all the rest. This is not right; it runs against the grain of European solidarity and everything European integration stands for. Therefore, the time has come for a pan-European Union military and defence spending review. This idea has been mooted for several years now, but unfortunately no European government has plucked up the courage to begin the process, which is long overdue. Should Europeans eventually get round to such an audit, the result must emphatically not be that Member States like Britain, France and the Netherlands—which spend a higher proportion of their gross national incomes on security and defence—reduce their outlay to the weaker Member States’ level of spending, but rather, a common benchmark should be set for all.

Britain and France both spend approximately two and a half percent of their economies on armaments and defence, and this seems like a sensible level for all Europeans. Quite simply, at a time of rising military budgets in Russia, China, India, and East Asia more generally, the defence and security of Europe—our homeland—cannot be left only to one small group of Europeans, or to foreign countries like the United States. In an uncertain world, Europeans must stick together; with unity comes strength. But for unity, which also brings security, everyone must contribute equally to the pot. So Spain, Europe needs you to spend more on defence!