World buys weapons

last updated 8 January 2015

Stockholm

Global military spending topped $1 trillion last year for the first time since the Cold War, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported this week. U.S. spending alone accounted for half that sum. The total might even be higher, the institute said, because countries are increasingly outsourcing military tasks such as training and logistical support to private companies without listing them as military expenses. Still, “despite all the ongoing problems,” said Alyson J.K. Bailes, the institute’s director, “the state of world security is a great deal better than it was in the Cold War.” SIPRI’s annual report on global conflicts is regarded as the authoritative reference for scholars of military affairs.