It's a record.
State military spending has never been so high in thirty years, since the end of the Cold War, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri).
In 2022, states spent $2.24 trillion on their military and military equipment in 2022, or 2.2% of global GDP.
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The United States, China and Russia invest the most in their armies, and together account for 56% of total military spending.
Washington is in the lead, by far, with 877 billion dollars devoted to its army in 2022, including 19.9 billion in aid to Ukraine.
The leading military power contributes 39% of the world total, ahead of China (13%) and Russia (3.9%).
Europe is rearming
The invasion of Ukraine resulted in increased military spending, whether for Ukraine, Russia or other European countries.
Kyiv saw spending jump 640% in 2022, to $44 billion.
The institute specifies that this is the largest increase recorded in their data.
On the Russian side, spending increased by 9.2% in 2022, to reach $86.4 billion, in order to finance the attacks carried out against Ukraine.
Moscow would not have anticipated such an increase, according to the Institute.
"The difference between Russia's budget forecasts and its actual military expenditures in 2022 suggests that the invasion of Ukraine cost Russia far more than it had anticipated," said researcher Lucie Béraud-Sudreau
. , who participated in the data collection, in a press release published by the Institute.
"
But even if we remove the two warring nations, spending in Europe has increased significantly
," said
Nan Tian, another researcher who participated in the study, quoted by AFP.
The countries geographically close to Russia are particularly concerned, by
“fear of the Russian bear”,
as explained to Figaro Dominique Trinquand, general and former head of the French military mission to the UN.
The data shows an increase in military spending of 36% in Finland, 27% in Lithuania, 12% in Sweden and 11% in Poland.
Non-bordering European states, and members of NATO, have also increased their armament efforts.
French military expenditure represents 2.4% of global expenditure (2.4%), that of Germany (2.5%) and that of the United Kingdom (3.1%).
“
The increase in spending for European countries
has
a double effect
, analyzes Dominique Trinquand: in
the short term, the increase in spending strengthens NATO and in the long term, it strengthens Europe's defense capacity. .
»
China increases its sea power
These increases in military budgets are also linked to growing tensions in Asia, particularly in the China Sea and the Pacific.
China is thus considerably developing its military capabilities, driven by its territorial ambitions in Taiwan.
Beijing spent 292 billion dollars on it in 2022. The sum is 4.2% higher than the expenditure for 2021, and 63% compared to 2013. This expenditure is directed “
particularly towards the navy”
, explains Dominique Trinquand.
Other Asian countries are also equipping themselves to respond to the Chinese threat.
Japan has broken with its military policy of strict defense, to increase its expenditure by 5.9% between 2021 and 2022. The military budget of this country was 46.0 billion dollars in 2022. Japan had never spent so much money to its army since 1960, underlines the Stockholm Institute.
