HUMAN WRONGS WATCH

Israel, Singapore, Syria, Russia, Jordan, Cyprus, Kuwait, Azerbaijan, Bahrain and Saudi-Arabia are now the top ten of the Global Militarization Index (GMI).

This is the result of an evaluation of the most recent data (based on the latest surveys of 2011). With US $689 billion, the United States still has the highest military budget in the world. In the GMI 2012, it holds position 30 of 135.

The Index defines the degree of militarization of a country by, amongst others, the comparison of military expenditures with its gross domestic product (GDP) or other indicators, such as health expenditure or number of physicians.

Middle East Way Ahead

As Jan Grebe, Project Leader at BICC, explains, the Middle East has been one of the most critical regions of crisis and conflict for years.

This is also reflected in the Index, which shows the constantly high degree of militarization in these countries. Six of the first top ten countries of the GMI are Israel (position 1), Syria (position 3), Jordan (position 5), Kuwait (position 8), Bahrain (position 9) and Saudi Arabia (position 10).

Nearly all other Middle Eastern states can be found among the first 40 positions. Iran, for instance, is in position 34. Against the background of political uprisings, continuing unrests in some states and the war in Syria, the inherent danger of high degrees of militarization is destabilizing the region further.

“Large-scale arms procurements, such as the interest of Saudi-Arabia and Qatar in German tanks, are signs for the development of a regional arms race,” Jan Grebe warns.

The Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC) is an independent, non-profit organization, which deals with a wide range of global topics in the field of peace and conflict research.

The promotion of peace and development is the most important precondition for security and the transformation of conflicts, it says. BICC takes a comprehensive view of ‘conversion’ as the reduction and transformation of military stockpiles, capacities and processes. This perception of conversion comprises an understanding of peace and security, which goes far beyond the narrow focus that national states place on military security.

Read: Global Militarization Index (GMI).

*Source: Bonn International Center for Conversion release.

2012 Human Wrongs Watch