Atle Hetland<\/p>\n
Europe is in a time of major in\u00adcreases in military expenditures, and the USA has already had very high military budgets for a long time. We hear about quantitative increas\u00ades, less about the qualitative ones, and hardly anything about broader peace creation efforts. With President Trump in office, the USA puts pressure on all the other NATO countries to spend more on the military; the NATO members are now 32 in all, includ\u00ading the USA, the largest contributor; the USA spends some 3.7 percent of its GDP on the military. Trump says each coun\u00adtry should spend 3-5 percent of BNP on defence. Fair enough, many politicians say, since America pays for and controls most of America\u2019s and Europe\u2019s military. Also, many European countries, and left-oriented groups in the countries, have long wanted to reduce the upper hand of the Americans in defence policies, as it all is based on a model established at the end of WWII, indeed with America at the top. It is still a fact that America has mili\u00adtary personnel and installations in many foreign countries, including in Europe, over eighty years after the war. America also has major military R&D activities, and it certainly has huge military trade with its allies and beyond. Without that, the American economy would have been much smaller and less innovative.
\nI shall not go into details about the sizes of the different European coun\u00adtries\u2019 and NATO members\u2019 budgets. Yet, for comparison, it should be mentioned that the USA spends about ten times as much as Russia on the military, even though Russia has certainly increased its expenditures much since the be\u00adginning of the invasion of Ukraine. But figures from 2023 show that the USA spent over USD 1000 billion on the mil\u00aditary, and Russia spent about USD 109 billion. The increases in military bud\u00adgets by many European countries have gone up very much in recent years, with some countries now spending double or triple on defence as compared to a few years ago. Also, manufacturing of equipment, ammunition, advanced mil\u00aditary planes, and so on, and in our time, drones and other new and advanced technology. The nuclear arsenals are huge in the USA and Russia.
\nAgain, there is a major rearmament of the West, especially the European NATO member countries, with Finland and Sweden as the latest NATO members from 2023 and 2024, respectively. Swe\u00adden was a neutral, yet clearly Western oriented country for hundreds of years. Today, the country spends about 2.4 per\u00adcent of its GDP on defence, intending to increase it further. Although many Euro\u00adpean countries are small in population, their economies are sizeable. Norway, for example, with a population of just 5.6 million people, has the world\u2019s 32nd largest economy, and it has reached 2 percent of GDP on defence and plans to increase it further. It is one of the major donors of military and humanitarian as\u00adsistance to Ukraine, and spends about one percent on development aid.
\nThe main reason for Europe\u2019s huge re\u00adarmament at this time has to do with Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine and fur\u00adther tension between Russia and the West, and also trade and other compe\u00adtition for world leadership between Chi\u00adna and Europe, indeed including the USA. China\u2019s economic development remains on steady rise. Russia\u2019s economy is rela\u00adtively small, about the same size as that of Italy, but Russia is the world\u2019s largest country by territory, rich in minerals and natural resources, and has several oth\u00ader advantages, yet, with shortages in de\u00admocracy development and innovation, considered essential for long-term stabil\u00adity and development. Russia\u2019s long-last\u00ading conflicts with and invasions of most of its fourteen immediate neighbours, is a scar on Russia\u2019s history and reputation, and its ability for future peaceful internal and external development.
\nThe Soviet Union ended in 1989\/92, and at that time there was hope and pos\u00adsibilities for a peaceful, new course for the country. Alas, both Europe and Rus\u00adsia missed the opportunity. In hindsight, many would say that the way Ukraine was separated from Russia in 1991 to become an independent country (yet, having to give up its nuclear weap\u00adons), was overambitious and not well planned. But there were possibilities for other arrangements in the two decades leading up to Russia\u2019s full invasion of Ukraine on 14 February 2022, after its earlier annexation of Crimea and dis\u00adputes for the returning to Russia of some areas in Eastern Ukraine, with the Minsk Agreements being unsuccessful. When the situation has become as it now is, it will be complicated to return to peace\u00adful and cordial relations between two countries who have many similarities and would mostly benefit from peace\u00adful cooperation. We mostly blame Rus\u00adsia for its aggression, with good reason. However, NATO and Europe should have been able to avoid the ongoing military conflict, and after it had begun, NATO should have played a peace-creating role. It is also a fact that Europe, includ\u00ading the EU, should have played a much more proactive role in helping Russia in its change major processes from com\u00admunism to capitalism with economic. I am afraid that historians will not look kindly at what happened; new oppor\u00adtunities to modernise Russia, with its many structural problems, will take long to reoccur, and the restoring of modern international relations.
\nIn addition to the direct conflict be\u00adtween Russia and the West, with the more than three-year long Russia-Ukraine War, there are several other war and peace issues that are not ad\u00addressed. The enormous increases in mil\u00aditary budgets seem to be made without fundamental discussions of the reasons for the specific military investments, and certainly, the broader philosophy and purpose of defence. In many ways, the cart has been put before the horse. Huge investments are made without the necessary analyses of what to do and why, even if considered within a military thinking, and certainly if considered in broader, alternative and sustainable peace development perspectives.
\nIt is difficult to accept the enormous increases in military expenses in the West, but also in other countries, in\u00adcluding poor African countries. It seems that the international community, in\u00adcluding the UN, does not place peace issues high enough on the agenda \u2013 al\u00adthough it is obvious that their early ini\u00adtiatives would have avoided conflicts, cost less money, and had less devasta\u00adtion on people\u2019s displacement and suf\u00adfering. Indeed, lower military expenses would leave money and people for other essential tasks, such as health and edu\u00adcation, and peacebuilding and develop\u00adment. There is urgent need and work to be done in the world, certainly now when differences grow between rich and poor everywhere.
\nWithout more sharing of resources and democratic development efforts, the future will not be peaceful and prosper\u00adous. This we all know; the problem is that we don\u2019t follow the obvious knowl\u00adedge. It is not possible to understand why NATO, with all its advanced knowl\u00adedge and experts, can allow the Russia-Ukraine War to go on \u2013 and that the un\u00adprecedented rearmament can escalate. In the last few decades, we were many who had expected to see more peace and harmony in our time, and reduced mili\u00adtary expenditure. Alas, our leaders and we the people, too, seem to have gone the wrong way. Now it is time to turn around before it is too late, although it is already in the eleventh hour.
\nTo begin the major change now would be a very appropriate action at the end of this year\u2019s Ramadan, and towards the end of Lent. Even those who don\u2019t pray often may have realized that prayer is one of the few options left \u2013 and prayer always has the key aspects of listening and trying to see issues from the other sides. In it all, there is hope for a better world and a promised land \u2013 and then it is for each of us to do what we can and help create peace and peaceful thinking in practice \u2013 InshahAllah.<\/p>\n
The writer is a senior Norwegian social scientist with experience from university, diplomacy and development aid. He can be reached at atlehetland@yahoo.com<\/p>\n
Courtesy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Atle Hetland Europe is in a time of major in\u00adcreases in military expenditures, and the USA has already had very high military budgets for a long time. We hear about quantitative increas\u00ades, less about the qualitative ones, and hardly anything about broader peace creation efforts. With President Trump in office, the USA puts pressure on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[12984],"class_list":{"0":"post-469587","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-article","7":"tag-atle-hetland"},"yoast_head":"\n