Global Day of Action on Military Spending

Last updated
Global Day of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS)
Observed byWorldwide
TypeInternational
DateMid-April (annually, depending on release of SIPRI data)
Frequencyannual

Global Day of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS) takes place every year in mid-April. [1] The day was originally proposed by the International Peace Bureau (IPB) and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) with the aim of promoting a common awareness of the amounts of money spent on military. Military expenses reach about $1,700 billion each year. On GDAMS groups around the world advocate a shift of budget priorities and promote spending this amount of money on human development. [2] [3]

Contents

Thematic

Whole libraries have been written about the use of weapons in armed conflict. Far less has been said about their effects on sustainable development, which is crucial from a human security perspective.

The IPB contrasts the high levels of military spending (estimated by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in 2011 as being US $1,738 billion at worldwide level) against, for instance, the failure to fulfill the pledges of the Millennium Development Goals [4] suggesting that, in general: "Research on the causes of violent conflicts shows myriad factors, but does not indicate that building bigger armies is the key to keeping a county safe from warfare. In fact, funds spent on weapons may drain resources from social, political, and economic development that may address root causes of conflict." [5] The amount of money spent on the defense sector equals $4.7 billion a day or $249 per person. According to the World Bank and the Office of Disarmament Affairs (ODA), only about 5% of this amount would be needed each year to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. [6]

The negative effects of high militarization include not just the direct ones of money and resources being spent on weapons systems instead of being used for human development but also the associated costs of negative health consequences of research, development, testing and even the safe decommissioning of such weapons, especially nuclear, biological and chemical ones. [7]

As is obvious, the greater the military expenditure, the less there is left to spend on other aspects, both at communal but also at individual level, such as building and maintaining infrastructure, education and health.

In the words of Dwight D. Eisenhower: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed". [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

The expression military–industrial complex (MIC) describes the relationship between a country's military and the defense industry that supplies it, seen together as a vested interest which influences public policy. A driving factor behind the relationship between the military and the defense-minded corporations is that both sides benefit—one side from obtaining weapons, and the other from being paid to supply them. The term is most often used in reference to the system behind the armed forces of the United States, where the relationship is most prevalent due to close links among defense contractors, the Pentagon, and politicians. The expression gained popularity after a warning of the relationship's detrimental effects, in the farewell address of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower on January 17, 1961.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Friends Committee on National Legislation</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stockholm International Peace Research Institute</span> Research institute in Stockholm, Sweden

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) is an international institute based in Stockholm. It was founded in 1966 and provides data, analysis and recommendations for armed conflict, military expenditure and arms trade as well as disarmament and arms control. The research is based on open sources and is directed to decision-makers, researchers, media and the interested public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Military budget</span> Financial resources dedicated by a state for purposes of national defense

A military budget, also known as a defense budget, is the amount of financial resources dedicated by a state to raising and maintaining an armed forces or other methods essential for defense purposes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Government spending</span> Government consumptions, investments, and transfer payments

Government spending or expenditure includes all government consumption, investment, and transfer payments. In national income accounting, the acquisition by governments of goods and services for current use, to directly satisfy the individual or collective needs of the community, is classed as government final consumption expenditure. Government acquisition of goods and services intended to create future benefits, such as infrastructure investment or research spending, is classed as government investment. These two types of government spending, on final consumption and on gross capital formation, together constitute one of the major components of gross domestic product.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Military budget of the United States</span> Yearly spending of the United States military

The military budget of the United States is the largest portion of the discretionary federal budget allocated to the Department of Defense (DoD), or more broadly, the portion of the budget that goes to any military-related expenditures. The military budget pays the salaries, training, and health care of uniformed and civilian personnel, maintains arms, equipment and facilities, funds operations, and develops and buys new items. The budget funds six branches of the US military: the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Air Force, and Space Force.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Military budget of China</span>

The military budget of China is the portion of the overall budget of China that is allocated for the funding of the military of China. This military budget finances employee salaries and training costs, the maintenance of equipment and facilities, support of new or ongoing operations, and development and procurement of new weapons, equipment, and vehicles. Every March, as part of its annual state budget, China releases a single overall figure for national military expenditures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Peace Bureau</span> International organization devoted to peacekeeping

The International Peace Bureau, founded in 1891, is one of the world's oldest international peace federations. The organisation was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1910 for acting "as a link between the peace societies of the various countries". In 1913, Henri La Fontaine was also awarded the Prize "[For his work as] head of the International Peace Bureau". As of 2012, eleven other Nobel Peace Prize laureates have been members of the IPB.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Nations Department of Peace Operations</span> Department of the United Nations

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arms Reduction Coalition</span>

The Arms Reduction Coalition (ARC) is a United Kingdom-based non-profit non-governmental organisation which campaigns for a reduction in the resources spent on arms and the military and for those resources to be diverted to programmes that benefit humanity and the earth; such as poverty reduction, sustainable development, protecting the vulnerable, systems for peaceful Conflict resolution and maintaining the environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environmental impact of war</span> Environmental problems caused by warfare

Study of the environmental impact of war focuses on the modernization of warfare and its increasing effects on the environment. Scorched earth methods have been used for much of recorded history. However, the methods of modern warfare cause far greater devastation on the environment. The progression of warfare from chemical weapons to nuclear weapons has increasingly created stress on ecosystems and the environment. Specific examples of the environmental impact of war include World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, the Rwandan Civil War, the Kosovo War, the Gulf War, and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Military budget of Russia</span>

The military budget of Russia is the portion of the overall budget of Russia that is allocated for the funding of the Russian Armed Forces. This military budget finances employee salaries and training costs, the maintenance of equipment and facilities, support of new or ongoing operations, and development and procurement of new weapons, equipment, and vehicles. According to estimates for the 21 years from 2000, Russia increased its military budget from $9.23bn to $65.9bn, or more than 600 percent. Moscow spends more on the military than any country of the European Union.

Conscience: Taxes for Peace Not War is an advocacy group based in the United Kingdom. Conscience's primary aim is to change British tax law to allow conscientious objectors to military taxation to redirect the military portion of their taxes to a fund designed for international peacebuilding, conflict management, conflict prevention and other non-violent interventions. Quakers, Mennonites, Baháʼís, Buddhists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists and Haredim Jews all practice conscientious objection for reasons of faith. Many other individuals do so for reasons of conscience, some believing there is little moral difference between actually firing lethal weapons and paying someone else to do so. Conscience believes that to deny these individuals the right to redirect the military portion of their taxes is to deny them freedom of thought, conscience, and religion as enshrined in various national and international human rights laws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angelo Cardona</span> Colombian social entrepreneur and activist

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The Global Campaign on Military Spending (GCOMS) is a global campaign that was created in December 2014 by the International Peace Bureau (IPB) to tackle the worldwide issue of excessive military spending.

Joseph Gerson is an American peace and disarmament activist. He is president of the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security and vice-president of the International Peace Bureau. Since 1976 he has served the American Friends Service Committee as director of the Peace and Economic Security Program.

}} The Delàs Center for Peace Studies is an independent body involved in analyzing issues like peace, security, defense and disarmament, founded in 1999. First it was linked to Justícia i Pau in Girona, Spain. The center was named after Josep Manuel Delàs, a Catalan military, social activist and pacifist, and chairman of Justícia i Pau. Before settling in Girona, Josep Manuel Delàs was commander of the reserve army and a member of the UMD. Josep Manuel Delàs had been linked to Justícia i Pau from the end of the 1980s until his death in 1999, and president from 1989 to 1995.

References

  1. ↑ "GDAMS". Global Days of Action on Military Spending. Archived from the original on 14 April 2013. Retrieved 26 November 2012.
  2. ↑ "Global Campaign on Military Spending". ipb.org. Archived from the original on 30 March 2022. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  3. ↑ "About us". demilitarize.org. Archived from the original on 17 October 2020. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  4. ↑ Elliott, Larry (6 April 2011). "Western countries fail to meet Gleneagles aid pledges". The Guardian . Retrieved 9 April 2011.
  5. ↑ "World Military Expenditures: a compilation of data and facts related to military spending, education and health" (PDF). ipb.org. p. 27. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 July 2011. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
  6. ↑ Kane, Angela. "Global Day of Action on Military Spending 17 April 2012" (PDF). United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 March 2022. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  7. ↑ "MILITARY TOOLS - THE IMPACT OF WEAPONS ON DEVELOPMENT" (PDF). ipb.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 July 2011. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
  8. ↑ Samuelson, Paul; Nordhaus, William (2009). Economics (19th ed.). New York City: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. p. 8. ISBN   978-0-07-351129-0.
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