Peace Sells, But Who is Buying?

          The military plays an extremely important role in protecting nations and
citizens, as a part of national security, but recent upsurge in defence
            expenditure indicates that the world is gearing up more for war than peace.

American journalist, Walter Lippman, nicknamed ‘The American Sage’ by the British-American writer Alistair Cooke, emerged from retirement to criticize the American Government’s war policy during the war in Vietnam.

Lippman argued that the USA should have been in Vietnam as a trading and cultural presence only, rather than an invading army. Adding that the problem of peace would never be solved in the foreseeable future as long as countries, like the US, and its Anglo-Saxon’ allies unduly influenced by that country, continued in their  tireless ways of pouring billions of Dollars into conflicts that could have been settled peacefully for far less.

Lippman depicted American Presidents as puppets at the hands of blood-thirsty warmonger US military, with complicity of the US Congress which ‘doesn’t willingly appropriate money except for wars’.

The Cost of War 

Since 2021, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has been releasing fact sheets of countries and their military expenditures with regard to their respective GDPs. The reading of the document surprises in more than one way.  

Although, the usual suspects, the US, the West, China and Russia sit pretty on the list, it was, mostly, the presence of the so-called developing countries that caught the eye with their global exorbitant military spending. 

The Top Ten of that infamous listing, released by SIPRI, comprises countries such as Afghanistan which, sits at the very top with a scandalous spending of 12 billion dollars, or a massive 61.40% of its GDP of 19.54 billion Dollars!, with Kuwait bringing the rear at 5.69% of its GDP of $120.13 billion.

It is an interesting fact that the US, China, Russia and Western European countries, all have a defence budget of lower than 4% of their respective GDPs. China, however, has indicated that, in the face of mounting tensions, its military spending will increase to 7% in 2024.

Old Grudges, New Enemies

The world is changing in very worrying ways. Emerging countries in the Global South are searching for like-minded partners around the world, to challenge the hegemony of the United States and the West, as counterweight and challenge to institutions and blocs backed in the developed world,   while the so-called Anglo-Saxon bloc of countries have pledged allegiance to one another and vowed to stop the rise of China and other ‘unfriendly’ nations. 

The long deadlock on disarmament has seen countries jump into coalition of one sort or another. Yet amid all the talk of peace, and a United Nations’ pledge of upholding it at any cost, rich countries have increased their defence budget, and the poor countries in the developing world, not wanting to lag too far behind and at the mercy of powerful nations, have started digging deep in their pockets, at the expense of the wellbeing of their own people.

Global Repositioning

As much of the world is caught up in the frenzy of military budget increase, Germany, under immense pressure from western world, has, not only, reneged but also given up on its long-standing pacifist stance, and has since, along with Finland and Sweden who have also ditched their trademark neutral status, joined the choir of nations fighting a proxy war in Ukraine.  

 A study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has shown that an increase in central government expenditure, more often than not, triggers an upward movement in military spending budgets.

The race, to acquire heavier, deadlier and state-of-art weapons, has so intensified, that SIPRI has revealed that the world military expenditure had crossed the $2 trillion for the first time in April 2022 to reach $2 113 trillion, an increase of 0.7%, and is set to rise as tensions abound around the world.

The Looming Threat of an all-out War

 With exaggerated threats coming from war lobbyists, the race, to acquire weapons with more power to destroy, has grown so strong, and is set to rise as tensions abound around the world, all the while the US military spending keeps increasing year-over-year with no foreseeable sign of abetting.

With the exception of nuclear arsenal, which has become the unconditional and non-negotiable domain of a chosen few elite countries, the race to more powerful conventional weapons has intensified  worldwide, entailing tremendous cost, a far cry from what was thought of in the aftermath of the end of the cold war, when just about anyone had breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that the worst was behind us. Then again, the demons of war have resurfaced, with eight nations boasting nuclear arsenals, with another twenty knocking at the nuclear door, underlying the grim message that a state with no nuclear deterrent can’t defend itself.  

The Business of War    

As wars, guerrillas and unrest rage on, it is business as usual for the thousands of companies worldwide, which profit from such state of affairs. Ranging from energy companies, camping equipment, military weapons manufacturers, agricultural traders and other contractors.

These multinational corporations war profiteers, which pay serious taxes, profit from global upheavals, relying on their political partners in high places to plant the seeds of discord to fuel their businesses in return, through a mutually beneficial destructive system.

The US has been, for a very long time, fuelling the race to armaments by securing strategically placed bases around the world, and in the process, alienating perceived enemies by setting camps and deploying proficient weapons right at their doorstep, while widening the circle of its war tool, NATO, with new members from Eastern Europe, and ‘strategic’ partners in the Arabian Gulf and in and around the South China Sea.

The US is by far the number one exporter of heavy weapons and other war gadgets, either through sales, aid or gift. Boasting the lion’s share of 39% in International arms exports, ranked number one, on the SIPRI Arms Exports Chart, the United States also tops the list of spenders with a jaw-dropping total of $750 billion in 2022.

Peace, an endangered Commodity?

In spite of all the multilateral peace building operations or  agreements, the so many talks, lectures, conventions, seminars, webinars and other symposiums and forums on peace, and endless negotiations  to prevent wars, resolve conflicts, and build sustainable peace, and despite inspirational stories of individuals and countries making great contributions toward a truly united world, peace, in its global meaning, remains as elusive today as in the days of old, partly, through a combination of flaws in tackling the problem, bias or political unwillingness that hinder proper judgment, retard the desired outcome, or breaks down the entire process.    

Peace might still sell, but the United States, having spent almost $15 trillion on its military since 1990, is certainly not buying.

It is quite clear for a country addicted to flexing its muscles, throwing its weight around, and always on a permanent war footing, with a long well-documented history of bullying and all other underhanded tactics under the sun, this trend is set to continue, whether under Joe Biden, seemingly unchallenged in the Democrats Party, or the imminent leadership of the volatile Republican, mouth-for-war, twice-impeached, Donald Trump, or any other candidate that might win the race to the White House. 

The fear of exploitation, coupled with the fear of economic sanctions and military occupation or intervention, continue to fuel the sentiments of Anti-Americanism, or Anti-West in general, and drive and escalate the arms race, and the trend has been steadily on the rise in many developing countries who have joined the race, sometimes at the expense of their own development, and where, according to the British journalist, Richard Willoughby Gott, who worked for The Guardian newspaper, ‘The people there just want to be left alone!’

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Alexis K.Z Champmathieux is a retired high-school teacher who specializes in history and geography. With a huge passion for the written word, he likes to push the literary boundaries, to always try and come up with something new. He lives with his partner Lorna Donnelly, in the suburb of Montclair, Durban, South Africa.