Consortium News: 29-04-2025,
For the second year in a row, military outlays rose in all five of the world’s geographical regions amid world-wide tensions, finds the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Fish-eye view of operations on the flight deck of USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier in the South China Sea on Jan. 13. (U.S. Navy/Kenneth Ostas)
By Jessica Corbett
Common Dreams
Military spending worldwide soared to $2.718 trillion last year, meaning it “has increased every year for a full decade, going up by 37% between 2015 and 2024,” according to an annual report released Monday.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has tracked conflict, disarmament, and weapons for nearly six decades. Its 2024 spending report states that “for the second year in a row, military expenditure increased in all five of the world’s geographical regions, reflecting heightened geopolitical tensions across the globe.”
In a Monday statement, Xiao Liang, a researcher with the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program, highlighted that “over 100 countries around the world raised their military spending in 2024.”
“This was really unprecedented… It was the highest year-on-year increase since the end of the Cold War,” Liang told Agence France-Press, while acknowledging that there may have been larger jumps during the Cold War but Soviet Union data is not available.
“This was really unprecedented… It was the highest year-on-year increase since the end of the Cold War.”
Liang warned that “as governments increasingly prioritize military security,