Suchergebnisse

The Arms Trade Treaty is intended to prevent arms supplies likely to be used to violate International Humanitarian Law or human rights, or exacerbate conflict. Yet, some of the countries who most strongly championed the ATT have continued to supply arms in the face of clear evidence that they are being misused, most notably at present in the war in Yemen. This article addresses this apparent paradox in the case of the UK – the first major arms producing nation to publicly support the ATT. The article situates UK support for the ATT, under the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair, in the context of the domestic political considerations of the Blair Government; in particular, the desire to restore the UK's image as a "force for good" in the world in the wake of the Iraq War. At the same time, the high dependence of the UK arms industry on exports, in particular to Saudi Arabia, drove the government to fail to robustly implement ATT commitments – as well as those from the earlier EU Common Position, and to allow UK arms companies to continue to engage in "war profiteering" in Yemen and elsewhere.

This brief article introduces a symposium on the Palestinian economy.

With world military expenditure rising rapidly since 2000, one of the possible drivers that has drawn less attention has been the role of natural resource revenues, especially oil. Countries as diverse as Angola, Azerbaijan, Chad, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, and Timor-Leste have seen huge rises in military expenditure on the back of rapidly increasing oil revenues. Natural resource extraction can generate conflict and create an imperative to protect resource infrastructure from internal or external threats. At the same time it provides a ready source of government revenue, and in particular foreign currency. The lack of transparency often associated with such revenues may facilitate off-budget spending or large, and possibly corrupt, arms purchases. Up to now, most econometric research has not considered the role of resource revenues as a determinant of military expenditure. We provide a preliminary analysis for the case of Algeria, estimating military expenditure as a function of oil revenues and other economic and security factors from 1975 to 2008. We find some evidence that oil revenues have had a statistically significant positive effect on Algerian military expenditure.

Total global military expenditure in 2009 is estimated to have been $1531 billion. This represents an increase of 6 per cent in real terms compared to 2008, and of 49 per cent since 2000. Military expenditure comprised approximately 2.7 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009. All regions and subregions saw an increase in 2009, except the Middle East. The global economic crisis had little impact on world military spending in 2009, as most major economies boosted public spending to counteract the recession, postponing deficit reduction. While military expenditure was not a major feature of economic stimulus packages, it was not generally cut either. Nine of the top 10 spenders increased military spending in 2009. However, some smaller economies less able to sustain large deficits did cut spending. Natural resource revenues appear to be a significant driver of military expenditure in many developing countries, with rapidly rising revenues from oil and other commodities in recent years, due to increases in both price and production. This may lead to increased military spending as a means of protecting resources from internal or external threats, while resource revenues are often a source of funding for arms purchases. The drop in commodity prices in 2009 has slowed this trend in some cases. The conflict in Afghanistan is proving increasingly costly to many of the countries with a substantial troop presence there and has also generated debates as to the focus of military spending, between equipment of use in current conflicts and major weapon platforms designed for power projection. In the UK a combination of the Afghanistan conflict, high deficits and an overambitious equipment programme have sharpened this debate. US military spending is continuing to rise under the Obama Administration, partly due to the escalating conflict in Afghanistan. Spending is budgeted to rise further in 2010, and military spending is exempted from a general freeze on discretionary spending. The 2010 budget saw some refocusing of priorities, with cancellation of some major weapon systems and increased focus on information and communications technology, but no major strategic shift. Military spending patterns in Afghanistan and Iraq both reflect the demands of rebuilding a country's armed forces from scratch following external invasion and with continued requirement for substantial external funding. Adapted from the source document.

Enthält: Perlo-Freeman, Sam; Ismail, Olawale; Solmirano, Carina: Military expenditure. - S. [177]-200 Perlo-Freeman, Sam ...: Military expenditure data, 2000-2009. - S. [201]-242 Kelly, Noel: The reporting of military expenditure data. - S. [243]-249