SIPRI reports on World Nuclear Forces and military spending 2006

SIPRI annual report

July 13, 2007

Nuclear forces stood at an estimated 26,000 nuclear warheads in 2006 according to SIPRI.  World Military Expenditures rose to US $1204 billion, or over US $2,000,000 every single minute last year according to the annual report released in Stockholm last month..

World nuclear forces
According to SIPRI’s annual inventory of world nuclear forces, the USA, Russia, France, the UK and China together held more than 26 000 nuclear warheads at the beginning of 2007. Although the total number of warheads is gradually being cut, all five countries are undertaking or planning major programmes to update their nuclear weapon arsenals. ‘The decisions taken by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council will keep nuclear weapons in their arsenals beyond 2050,’ says Ian Anthony, Leader of the SIPRI Nonproliferation and Export Control Project.

World Military Expenditures

SIPRI reports that world military expenditure in 2006 was $1204 billion in current dollars, a 3.5 per cent increase since 2005. In the period 1997–2006 world military expenditure rose by 37 per cent.

The continued surge in China’s military spending—which reached an estimated $49.5 billion (in 2005 dollars)—saw it overtake Japan ($43.7 billion) to become the biggest military spender in Asia and the fourth biggest in the world in 2006. India was the third biggest spender in Asia, with $23.9 billion (in 2005 dollars). The USA spent $528.7 billion and Russia an estimated $34.7 billion (in 2005 dollars) on their military sectors in 2006.

‘It is worth asking how cost-effective military expenditure is as a way of increasing the security of human lives, if we talk about avoiding premature deaths and disability due to current dangers. For example, we know that millions of lives could be saved through basic health interventions that would cost a fraction of what the world spends on military forces every year,’ says SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme Leader Elisabeth Sköns.

Almost 50 per cent more conventional weapons, by volume, were transferred internationally in 2006 than in 2002, according to data gathered by SIPRI. China and India were the largest importers of weapons. The USA and Russia were the largest weapon suppliers.

‘The USA and the European Union countries continue to supply vast quantities of arms to the Middle East, despite the knowledge that it is a highly volatile region,’ comments Siemon Wezeman, SIPRI Arms Transfers Project Leader.

A world of risk

In its overview of developments in the world of peace and security, armaments and disarmament during the past year, SIPRI Yearbook 2007 highlights the need for a new broad and comprehensive approach to providing human security in view of the diversity of risks to security in the world today.

SIPRI staff comment on some of the issues covered:

On energy and security:

‘Seeing how energy could become a weapon or new conflicts could be caused is the obvious part: finding new ways to cooperate on the threats and hardships that will hit all humanity is tougher but ultimately more worthwhile,’ says SIPRI Director Alyson Bailes.

On international terrorism and armed conflicts:

‘In the early 21st century, when most forms of armed political violence appear to be either declining or stabilizing, terrorism, in contrast, is clearly on the rise,’ says SIPRI Project Leader Ekaterina Stepanova.

On democratic accountability of intelligence services:

‘Good intelligence has always been vital to security and to be good today, it needs more than ever to be impartial and professional. Controls are needed not just in case the agencies have their own agenda, but to deal with the apparently more common problem of their targets and findings being skewed for political purposes’, says SIPRI Director Alyson Bailes.

Source:

SIPRI, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, conducts independent research on armaments, disarmament and international security. SIPRI Yearbook 20076 is published on behalf of SIPRI by Oxford University Press. Further details are online at  www.yearbook2007.sipri.org