THE continuous push for militarisation is an attempt of capitalism as a system to overcome its crisis, for which it creates wars in one or the other way. The current phase of crisis being a systemic crisis of capitalism warrants it to be in continuous war as witnessed at present. This inevitably leads to soaring of militarisation expenses as against a lag in developmental expenses. Recent reports vindicate it and reveal the barbaric nature of capitalism, which prioritises profit over people and their development.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which tracks and reports on global trends, providing valuable data on military spending in its SIPRI Yearbook 2026 published in June reveals that global military expenditure reached a record $2.89 trillion, with global average spending of $352 per person in 2026 accounting for 2.5% of GDP, with a eleventh consecutive year of growth.

The 15 largest military spenders accounted for 80 per cent of the world’s military expenditure in 2025 with $2,304 billion. USA stands first with $954 billion accounting for 33 per cent of total global spending. Many of the 15 largest military spenders were involved either directly or indirectly in the wars in Gaza and Ukraine in 2025. The largest military burdened nation in the world in 2025 is Ukraine with military spending equivalent to 40 per cent of its GDP.

In June 2025, NATO members set a military spending target of 5 percent of GDP by 2035, increasing it from the agreed 2 percent in 2014. Europe saw the largest annual increase since the Cold War and US spending was set to exceed $1 trillion in 2026. The US Space Force is continuing operational launches and is weaponising space with a target to set up a nuclear reactor on the moon by 2030. Elon Musk has been appointed to Project Meridian, a Pentagon panel shaping future warfare strategy, to integrate modern technology with war needs.

Nine nuclear armed states -- USA, Russia, UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel -- possess a combined inventory of 12,187 nuclear warheads as of January 2026 with Russia and US holding 83 to 86 per cent.

The volume of international transfers of major arms in the 5-year period 2021-25 was the highest since the end of the Cold War, having risen by 9.2 per cent compared with 2016–20. Israel continued to receive major arms from supplier states despite high civilian death toll in Gaza and Israeli violations of international law with its genocidal war on Gaza since October 2023.  The US was the largest supplier to Israel in 2021–25 accounting for 68 per cent of Israeli arms imports, followed by Germany with 31 per cent. SIPRI has identified 66 states as suppliers of major arms in 2021–25, but most were minor exporters. The 25 largest suppliers accounted for 98 per cent of the total volume of exports, with the US, France, Russia, Germany as toppers.

US arms exports grew by 27 per cent between 2016-20 and 2021-25, increasing its share of global arms exports from 36 per cent to 42 per cent, depicting the stranglehold of the US military industrial complex. In contrast, Russia’s arms exports halved between 2016-20 and 2021-25 (minus 64 per cent), giving it a global share of 6.8 per cent, a level far below any previous five-year period in its history. The arms exports of the 27 current European Union member states went up by 36 per cent between 2016-20 and 2021-25. They accounted for 28 per cent of total global arms exports in 2021–25, which was two thirds the volume of US arms exports in the same period, but four times higher than Russia’s export volume and five times higher than China’s. Arms exports by France rose by 21 per cent between 2016–20 and 2021–25 and accounted for 9.8 per cent of the global imports of major arms, while arms exports by Germany increased by 15 percent, giving it a 5.7 percent share.

SIPRI has identified 162 states as recipients of major arms in 2021-25. The five largest recipients were Ukraine, India, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan, which together accounted for 35 percent of total arms imports in the period. Ukraine’s arms imports were around 100 times higher in 2021–25 than in 2016–20 and it became the world’s largest arms recipient with at least 36 states delivering major arms, mostly as aid for the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war, a de-facto NATO war on Russia. Arms imports by states in Europe more than trebled between 2016–20 and 2021–25 (+210 per cent), reaching a level far higher than at any time since the end of the Cold War and making Europe the largest importing region for the first time since the 1960s.

The combined arms revenues of the 100 largest arms producing and military services companies (SIPRI Top 100) totalled US $679 billion in 2024. This was 5.9 per cent higher than in 2023. Seventy-seven of the companies in the top 100 increased their arms revenues in 2024, including 42 that reported at least double-digit percentage growth. Along with Lockheed Martin, RTX Country, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Boeing, L3 Harris Technologies 39 companies of the top 100 in 2024, with total arms revenues of $334 billion are US firms.  

The United Nations landmark report of 2025 ‘The Security We Need: Rebalancing Military Spending for a Sustainable & Peaceful Future’, notes that military expenditure per person on the earth is 13 times the official development assistance from the world’s wealthiest nations and 750 times the regular United Nations budget. It also states that while military budgets are soaring global progress on the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals is lagging with only five targets on track and a $4 trillion annual financial gap. The report highlights that while $1 billion invested for militarisation creates 11,000 jobs, it can create 17,000 and 27,000 jobs if invested in healthcare and education respectively.  

The World Bank’s September 2026 update projects extreme poverty at 9.8 per cent in 2026, which means 824 million people are living on less than $3.00 a day. The cost of eliminating extreme poverty worldwide is estimated at just $318 billion annually, that is roughly 0.3 per cent of global GDP, or about 11 per cent of what nations now spend on their militaries. With 645 million people still facing hunger, the contrast reveals not a scarcity of resources, but a deliberate political prioritisation of imperialist war as a means to overcome the systemic crisis of neo liberal capitalism over human survival.

PUSH FOR MILITARISATION IN INDIA

India is the fifth largest spender on militarisation spending $63 that is Rs 5,991 per person on military expenses. This accounts for 2.3 per cent of GDP equivalent to the expenditure of Germany and is 3.2 per cent of the global expenditure. India stands second with 8.9 per cent annual increase after Germany. India is the second largest arms importer in the world with 8 to 8.2 per cent global share second only to Ukraine, which has been at war for four years. India has expanded its nuclear stockpile to 190 warheads. India’s budget allocation for 2026-27 stood at a record Rs 7.85 lakh crores marking a 15.19 per cent annual increase. The beneficiaries of this are Adani Defence and Aerospace, Tata Advanced Systems and others including foreign defence manufacturers. The defence portfolio of the Adani group contributed in pushing him to the top of the richest persons in India in 2026, all done in the name of Atmanirbharta while privatising defence production.   

The World Bank estimates 5.3 per cent extreme poverty rate in India in 2023-24 with number of persons not capable of spending Rs 60 per day, that is one out of every 20 Indians are extremely poor. NITI Ayog recommends social sector spending to be 13 per cent of GDP, but the combined public and private spending stands at 6-7 per cent as per the India Philanthropy Report 2025.

The allocation for social sector in the 2026-27 budget is 2.5 per cent of GDP which is the lowest since 2014, reduced from 5.3 per cent in 2020-21. Public health spending is around 1.7 per cent against the National Health Policy (2017) target of 2.5 per cent and with less than 4 percent of GDP for education as per Economic Survey 2025. The social sector spending has fallen to an all-time low in a decade to 17 per cent of total expenditure with only Rs 7.7 lakh crore spent in 2024-25.