A great set of charts today from The Global Issues site (h/t Rumplestatkin) on military spending around the world.
Of course, the US leads the way, taking up most of the pie:
However, a ten year breakdown of that spending shows that the endless adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan (and Pakistan and…) have added their “toll” to US spending.
And for comparison of the rate of change in spending across nations, note how China has increased their official budget (the unofficial budget is said to be twice as big) by some 256% since 2001.
How is Australia supposed to counter this? Aside from the longer term strategic considerations of a stronger China, is the US defence spending sustainable? Unless Ron Paul becomes president, and/or the country falls into a deep depression, it seems the US will continue to be the world’s policeman, defending the world’s reserve currency.