Globalization of Crises and/or the Crisis of Globalization
191Security features of modern states are still made predominantly from
the corpus of the national armed forces and civilians, based on the
principle of protection of geopolitical national interests. Global military
expenses, directly encouraged by that approach, have increased in
significance in recent years: military expenditures globally in 2008 were
estimated at approximately $1.464 billion, and that represented an increase
of 4% in real terms compared to 2007, and an increase of 45% over the
period 1999-2008.^13 To make it clearer, that is $217 per person in the
world, 13 times more than what is spent on all forms of assistance aimed
at development, 700 times higher than the amount that is spent on
programs to improve global health, and about the same as the aggregate
GDP of all the countries in Africa. The effects of the global financial crisis
appear to have had little impact on military spending in most countries
including the U.S. and China, announcing a continuation of this trend in
the coming years.
The use of conventional forces in unstable regions only leads to further
deterioration and increased uncertainty, as we have seen in the examples
of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Georgia, Chechnya, and Palestine. What we
need are global security forces, like a special rapid intervention unit–
combined with medical, fire, and police facilities. The goal would not be
so much border security, but rather the security of people wherever they
live. Although the learning process is based on experience within
multilateral institutions like the United Nations, responses from the
international community remain inadequate. Last year, for example, total
global spending on multilateral operations such as the peacekeeping forces
of the UN is only $8.2 billion, or 0.56% of total global military spending.^14
The dangers of this growing paradox of increasing investment in military-
security aspects and the simultaneous growth of insecurity among the
people, are just the tip of the complex problems that arise from it and wait
to be resolved. Notably, all of the Millennium Development Goals^15 that
(^13) SIPRI Yearbook 2009. The U.S. participates the most in the global growth of
military spending, up from 58% in the last 10 years, mainly due to the wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan. But of course this is not just about the U.S. and its militarization.
China and Russia have together nearly tripled their military expenditure in the
same period, while other regions–such as Algeria, Brazil, India, Iran, Israel, South
Korea and Saudi Arabia–also made a significant contribution to this increase. Of
the 5 permanent members of the Security Council of the UN, only France
withstood increasing military spending.
(^14) SIPRI Multilateral Peace Operations Database. Stockholm: SIPRI:
http://www.sipri.org/databases/pko
(^15) Millenium Development Goals - UNDO: