Swedish think tank: Fears of Russia continue to spur worldwide military spending

Global military spending grew for the eighth consecutive year in 2022 to an all-time high of $2.24 trillion, with the sharpest increase — 13% — in Europe, largely due to Russian and Ukrainian spending, according to a Swedish think tank.

Direct military aid to Ukraine and concerns about a heightened threat from Russia strongly influenced spending decisions by several other countries, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said in a report released Monday.

The United States, China and Russia were the three largest military spenders in 2022 and accounted for 56% of the world total, SIPRI said.

“The continuous rise in global military expenditure in recent years is a sign that we are living in an increasingly insecure world,” Nan Tian, a senior SIPRI researcher, said in a statement. “States are bolstering military strength in response to a deteriorating security environment, which they do not foresee improving in the near future.”

Military spending in much of Europe has reached levels not seen since the Cold War. Military expenditure by countries in Central and Western Europe totaled $345 billion in 2022, for the first time surpassing the level spent in 1989 as the Cold War was ending.

At 36%, new NATO member Finland had the sharpest increase in defense spending in the SIPRI study, followed by Lithuania (27%), Sweden (12%) and Poland (11%).

While the full-scale invasion of Ukraine certainly affected military spending decisions in 2022, concerns about Russian aggression have been building in Europe for much longer, said Lorenzo Scarazzato, a researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program.

“Many former Eastern bloc states have more than doubled their military spending since 2014, the year when Russia annexed Crimea,” Mr. Scarazzato said in a statement.

Military spending in the U.S. reached $877 billion in 2022, three times more than the amount spent by China, the world’s second-largest spender. The increase in U.S. military spending in 2022 was largely the result of support for Ukraine — $19.9 billion by the end of the year. Yet the figure represented only 2.3% of total U.S. military spending in 2022, according to SIPRI.

Russian military spending in 2022 was about $86.4 billion, a 9.2% increase over the previous year that amounted to 4.1% of the country’s gross domestic product. Spending on national defense, the largest component of Russian military expenditures, was already 34% higher than in budgetary plans drawn up in 2021, SIPRI said.

“The difference between Russia’s budgetary plans and its actual military spending in 2022 suggests the invasion of Ukraine has cost Russia far more than it anticipated,” Lucie Beraud-Sudreau, director of SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program, said in a statement.

China and Japan are leading defense spending increases in Asia and Oceania, according to the SIPRI study.

Beijing remained the world’s second-largest military spender, at about $292 billion in 2022. It amounted to a 4.2% increase over 2021. China’s military expenditure has increased for 28 consecutive years.

Japan’s military spending increased by 5.9% in 2022 over the previous year, reaching $46 billion, which is 1.1% of its GDP. SIPRI says it is the highest level of Japanese military spending since 1960.

Japan released a national security strategy in 2022 that sets out a plan to ramp up its military capability over the coming decade in response to threats from China, North Korea and Russia.

“Japan is undergoing a profound shift in its military policy,” SIPRI researcher Xiao Liang said in a statement. “The post-war restraints Japan imposed on its military spending and military capabilities seem to be loosening.”