Putting Defense Spending in Context

Simple Comparisons Are Inadequate

Despite the damages wrought by six years of budget caps, the U.S. military remains the largest and most capable in the world. It is the only force capable of global power projection, and it maintains a vast network of logistics hubs and systems. Maintaining a force of the size and strength necessary to protect U.S. interests and uphold international obligations understandably necessitates a larger budget than is required for other nations with regional or local forces. However, statements such as “the U.S. spends more on defense than the next eight countries combined” evoke an appearance of excess, but give no consideration to the decisions driving defense spending or the factors contributing to costs across national economies. Claims that the U.S. spends too much, as measured against the defense expenditures of other countries, are disingenuous. The security environment in which the U.S. military is expected to operate has grown increasingly complex, and national defense resourcing warrants more than a solitary sentence of discussion.