Military spending has been on the rise all over the world. Every country has increased its military spending over the years despite the fact that the world has been a more peaceful and calmer place in the last fifty odd years. Apart from the regional wars and confined conflicts in certain countries, there has been no major war on a global scale. Yet, military spending continues to increase as we assess its merits and demerits.
List of Pros of Military Spending
1. National Security & Defense
Military spending is quintessential to protecting the sovereignty of a country, to strengthen its defense and to secure national interests. Military spending should not be seen as just increasing defense budgets or spending money on a war footing. Military spending has to be sustained to keep paying for training programs, to furnish the resources including ammunition for the armed forces, to keep paying the wages and benefits of all employed in the armed forces and veterans, to fund operations and to develop new technology. Without adequate military spending, a country may have weak defense, an inadequate army, navy and air force, poor technology and may be ill equipped to fight a war should any conflict escalate.
2. Emergency Funds
Military spending accounts for emergency funds. In times of war or armed conflict, one cannot preempt every cost and certainly cannot control the overall expenditure. A part of military spending goes into a fund that would pay for supplemental spending when necessary.
3. Strategic Deterrent
Military spending is also used as a strategic deterrent. Countries that have high military spending tend to cast an impression that they have a strong defense system in place. This deters any rogue nation or foreign threat from materializing their intentions.
4. Peacekeeping Funds
Military spending is not confined to wars, technology for weapons and welfare of armed forces personnel. Military spending is also about peacekeeping in areas that are torn by conflict or tensed regions.
5. Military Recruitment
Military spending ensures that there is no lapse in the recruitment and training cycle of the armed forces, that there are no retention issues and that the defense forces along with other paramilitary forces are always well prepped.
List of Cons of Military Spending
1. Needless Expense
Military spending tends to garner a lot of significance even when there is no threat of war. The staggering amounts of money spend on military expenses may be much better used elsewhere. The perennial debate is that instead of increasing military spending, countries should spend more on education, healthcare and other necessary services for the ordinary citizens.
2. Corruption/Wastage of Funds
Military spending can be mired in corruption. There are substantial amounts of money that are not really accounted for because of the classified nature of the expenses.
3. Possibility of Wars
Military spending is often routed to fund unnecessary and unrealistic wars.