Maintaining peace and security around the world is not cheap, and the price is only going up. A new report from a think tank that tracks world conflicts finds total global military spending reached $2.7 trillion last year, a 9.4% increase from the prior year and the largest annual increase since the end of the Cold War. Not surprisingly, a good portion of that spending came from Russia and Ukraine, locked in a more than three-year war. But other conflicts like the Israel-Hamas war and the existential threat from Iran's nuclear enrichment also contributed to growing unease over global tensions.
The U.S. increased defense spending by 5.7% last year, but President Trump and Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth have proposed a 12% increase in the defense budget this year, to more than $1 trillion total. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently told NATO allies in Brussels that the U.S. is upping its defense spending, and they need to as well. "The events of the last few years---like a full-scale ground war in the heart of Europe---is a reminder that hard power is still necessary as a deterrent," said Rubio. "So we do want to leave here with an understanding with every single one of the members committing and fulfilling a promise to reach up to five percent (of their GDP) on spending."
It's safe to say that with President Trump in office, military spending will increase at a higher rate, not only in the U.S. but around the world. As Rubio put it to NATO, "If the threats are truly as dire as I believe they are and the members of this alliance believe they are, then that threat has to be confronted by a full and real commitment to have the capability to confront these things."
"That's the message President Trump had in his first administration, and it's the one he brings into this one."
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