Global war spend close to €1 trillion

FOR the first time since the Cold War, global military spending reached almost €1 trillion in 2004, nearly half of it by the US, a prominent European think-tank said yesterday.

As military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and the ‘war on terrorism’ continue, the world spent almost €1 trillion on defence during the year, corresponding to 2.6% of global gross domestic product, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said.

The figure “is only 6% lower in real terms than it was in 1987-88, which was the peak,” said SIPRI researcher Elisabeth Skons, who co-authored the organisation’s annual report.