By Dr. Gyan Pathak
World needs a course correction for which a fundamental shift is required, since global military expenditure has been rising fast while sustainable development goals (SDGs) are faltering with too big a financial gap. Global insecurity intensifies, geopolitical rivalries deepen, and global military spending surged to an unprecedented level in 2024 to an all time high at $2.7 trillion. SDGs faltering with only one in five targets are on the track with an annual financial gap of $4 trillion.
It is revealed in the Report of the UN Secretary-General titled “The Security We Need: Rebalancing Military Spending for a Sustainable and Peaceful Future” on global increase in military expenditure on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals as requested by Action 13 (c) of the Pact for the Future.
Military spending is often justified on the ground of deterrence and national security. However, evidence suggests that heightened military expenditure does not necessarily lead to greater peace or stability. Instead, it often exacerbates geopolitical tensions, fuels arms races and increases risks of conflicts, particularly when coupled with weak governance, rising inequality and systemic mistrust, the report says.
Growing military expenditure, the report stated, is crowding out resources essential for social investment, poverty reduction, education, health, environmental protection and infrastructure – undermining progress on nearly all the SDGs.
This presents a case of fundamental shift in how we understand and pursue security. Rather than defining security narrowly in terms of military capability, the reports advocates for a human-centred, multidimensional approach rooted in dignity, human rights, and sustainable development. World needs to recalibrate global approaches to security and development, reversing the dual trends of rising military expenditure and widening financial gaps.
While global military spending has risen for the 10 consecutive years, COVID-19 pandemic, armed conflicts, economic volatilities, trade disputes and the ever-worsening effects of climate change have left 2030 SGD goals in peril. Only 35 per cent of targets are on track or making moderate progress, 48 per cent show insufficient progress and 18 per cent show regression compared to 2015 baseline.
Financial gap for SDGs has been widening for years and currently stands at $4 trillion a year –more than the GDP of the world’s fifth largest economy, that is India. Recently, several countries have reduced official development assistance, and now it is estimated that the gap could reach to $6.4 trillion per year by 2030. Connection is stark: As military budgets increase, financial gap for SDGs grows, endangering collective progress for all humanity.
There is heavy concentration of military spending among the 10 largest spenders spending 73 per cent of global expenditure in 2024. This group includes all five permanent members of the UN Security Council. They alone spent roughly $1.6 trillion, close to60 per cent of the global total. China, India, the Russian Federation, the United States of America and the European Union account for over 70 per cent of military expenditure.
To better comprehend the $2.7 trillion allocated in one year to global military spending, this amount equates to every person in the world contributing $334. It is equivalent to about 17 times total global spending onCOVID-19 vaccines (including vaccination programmes), the size of the entire GDP of all African countries, almost13 times the amount of official development assistance provided by OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) countries in 2024, and 750 times the 2024 United Nations regular budget.
The total estimated cost to lift 700 million people out of hunger and malnutrition by 2030 would require an additional $93 billion per year or roughly $550 billion for the next six years. The resources allocated to the military worldwide in 2024 alone were 29times what is needed per year and almost five times the total amount needed until 2030. To vaccinate every child on earth we need $100 billion – $285 billion , $5 trillion to fund 12 years of quality education for every child in low and lower middle income countries, $387 billion per year to fully fund adaptation needs of developing countries, $170 billion cumulative to 2030 to provide universal electricity access via renewables, $2.3 trillion – $2.8 trillion over 10 years to eliminate the extreme poverty gap globally, $1.2 trillion to eliminate child malnutrition globally for over 10 years, $114 billion per year to provide universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation in 140 low and middle income countries, and $3.7 trillion to provide basic healthcare to all in low and middle income countries for over 10 years.
Assuming an average annual growth rate of 4.7 per cent (average growth rate in global military expenditure over the last five years), military spending could reach $3.5 trillion in 2030 and exceed$4.4 trillion by 2035. Considering the recent geopolitical developments, it is likely to even cross $6 trillion mark by 2035. The possible $6.6 trillion in world military expenditure is almost five times the level at the end of the cold war, six times the lowest global level (1998) and two and a halftimes the level spent in 2024.In2024, more than 100 of 149 countries with available data increased their military spending.
Interlocking drivers of military spending are security considerations, political factors, economic circumstances, and the political economy of the military industrial complex. Interlocking drivers of military expenditure have emerged as the arms control architecture has weakened.
The report has pointed out that rising global military expenditure marks a shift in how conflicts, rivalries and geopolitical tensions are managed. It implies moving away from diplomacy and multilateralism and towards more protectionist and militarized strategies. Rather than fostering development or security, such policies risk deepening instability – for both present and future generations. Drift from multilateralism, Fiscal trade-offs and protectionist agendas, prevention of sustaining peace, erosion of trust and cooperative security have been clearly fuelling military expenditure.
On the other hand, the current SDG financial gap could reach $6.4 trillion by 2030 is a frightening prospect. The world’s total military expenditure over the past decade, estimated at $21.9 trillion, could have a transformative global impact if applied to development. It is time to rethink since the world economy could be on track for its slowest decade of global economic growth since 1960. Rising military expenditure is constraining the development of future generations, putting future of peace at risk. (IPA Service)
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