Adam Smith, an 18th-century Scottish philosopher and considered the father of modern economics, said that one of the primary functions of government is the defense of society, which justifies the collection of taxes. When the government gives the lion’s share of the budget to the military to ensure that the army is capable of defending the nation, it is acting on behalf of the citizens. Military spending, however, is intimately linked to war.
Guns and butter theory refers to the dynamics involved in a government’s allocation of funds, whether it is more interested in spending money on war or food for its people. Hermann Göring, German military leader, 1936: “Guns will make us powerful; butter will only make us fat.”
Globally, total military spending reached more than $2 trillion for the first time in 2021, according to an April report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The five largest spenders in 2021 were the United States, China, India, the United Kingdom and Russia, together accounting for 62 percent of expenditure, according to new SIPRI data on global military spending published on April 25.
“Even amid the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, world military spending hit record levels,” said SIPRI Senior Researcher Dr. Diego Lopes da Silva.
Russia increased its military expenditure by 2.9 percent in 2021, to $65.9 billion, at a time when it was building up its forces along the Ukrainian border. This was the third consecutive year of growth and Russia’s military spending reached 4.1 percent of GDP in 2021. “High oil and gas revenues helped Russia to boost its military spending in 2021. Russian military expenditure had been in decline between 2016 and 2019 as a result of low energy prices combined with sanctions in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014,” said Lucie Béraud-Sudreau, Director of SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program.
A key takeaway here is that every dollar spent on defense is a dollar not spent on something else, like food for the people. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted most European countries to start increasing their defense budget. The trade-off between military spending and public welfare is more painful now for many countries.
The Russian invasion has caused global suffering far beyond the battlefield in Ukraine. Russia’s war of aggression is exacerbating the food crisis in many countries, according to the United Nations.
Ukraine and Russia are considered the “granaries of Europe” as they supply about 30 percent of the world’s wheat needs. For years, Russia and Ukraine have ranked among the largest exporters of wheat, corn, rapeseed, sunflower seed and sunflower oil. Since the war began, Ukraine no longer exports anything at all. Its agriculture, which could help improve global food security, has collapsed.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned in March of the global consequences of the Ukraine war. The breadbasket is being bombed and a “hurricane of hunger” is threatening, he said. Given Ukraine’s great importance as a food exporter, the invasion was “also an attack on the world’s most vulnerable people and countries.”
In an article published by Scientific American—A Small Cut in World Military Spending Could Help Fund Climate, Health and Poverty Solutions—authors Carlo Rovelli and Matteo Smerlak argued that “international cooperation could stem and redirect some of the $2 trillion the world wastes each year in the global arms race.”
Military spending increases may seem like a natural response to the Ukraine crisis, they said. But “our house is burning, and instead of coming together to stanch the flames, we are busy building nuclear submarines, hypersonic missiles and other weapons of doom. The fruits of these exorbitant investments are not deterrence and peace; they are chaos and fear.”
The authors reminded global leaders about the simple truth pointed out by a great pacifist named Albert Einstein: “You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.” Indeed, you can’t say you don’t want a war and then go about doing all the things that get you ready for one.