Worldwide military spending increased in 2009 at the fastest pace since 2003, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's new report says.
'As the world’s military spending increased nearly 50% over the past decade, the biggest military budget increases were seen in small, oil-rich countries flooded with new wealth,' the Christian Science Monitor reported.
'From 2000 to 2009, Chad increased its military budget 663 percent, Azerbaijan increased 471 percent, and Kazakhstan increased 360 percent.'
The newspaper commented that Azerbaijan had used oil revenues 'to beef up forces along its border with Armenia, which has traditionally had a stronger army and enjoys strategic terrain advantages. The International Crisis Group said in a report last year that Azerbaijan's stronger military could put the fragile truce with Armenia under threat.'
'Azerbaijan has been playing catch-up with Armenia,' Sam Perlo-Freeman, one of the report’s authors and the head of SIPRI’s military expenditure project, told the Christian Science Monitor.
Worldwide military spending jumped 5.9% in 2009 to $1.5 trillion, according to the new SIPRI report. This is despite a recession that shrunk the global economy 2.2%.
The Christian Science Monitor
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