Military Spending and the Burden Sharing Debate

In 2022 worldwide military spending peaked largely due to the invasion of Russia in Ukraine. This paper provides an overview of the world’s military spending over the last three decades where we clearly see an influence of the geopolitical situation on the budgets. On a more theoretical note, models on military spending have traditionally focused on the aspect of burden sharing between allies. By giving a synopsis of this academic literature on burden sharing, we set the frame for a discussion on the current differences in worldwide military spending. We highlight the caveats one should keep in mind when comparing military expenditure data and debating defense burdens.