Why Does the U.S. Spend So Much on its Military?
An analysis of US military spending
The United States has long been the pre-eminent military power on Earth. Since the end of the Second World War, America’s armed forces have been a formidable fighting force.
Background
Despite the end of the Second World War, and the beginning of the most peaceful period in human history, this position has not changed, America’s military still holds the top spot, and spends a lot of money to keep it that way. A combination of Cold War tensions and hawkish positions on foreign policy has led to a consistently high amount of military spending throughout the post-war years — far higher than when compared with allies and enemies alike. In 2021, the U.S. military’s budget totalled around $801 billion making it the world’s largest. This high level of spending, continues today, and will intensify in the future, when considering the War in Ukraine and simmering tensions with China.
Therefore, it is clear that American military spending has been high for a long time and will continue to be high for the foreseeable future — but the question is why?
Military Spending Over Time
Let’s look at some history, while U.S. military spending has remained high for decades, there have been variations as different administrations took over. For example, after the Cold War ended, there was a decline in spending in the 1990s, after the Soviet Union collapsed. But there was a sharp increase, after 9/11 that occurred as the Bush Administration declared their “War on Terror” and focused more on national security. This increase in spending was continued throughout the 2000s and peaked in 2010 when defence spending reached over $750 billion.
Then spending declined from 2010 until about 2015 as part of spending cuts enacted during the Obama Administration; but the spending cuts didn’t last and as expected, military spending ticked up during the Trump and Biden Administrations as the dual threats of Russia and China became more prevalent. For reference, China has been increasing its military spending levels annually for the past 30 years.
The Military Industrial Complex
But, it’s not just external events that contribute to the high levels of spending. There are internal factors such as the Military-Industrial Complex that prop up inflated military budgets.
Companies such as Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies have a large amount of influence in government affairs. This is done through lobbying and well-placed political donations, to congressional candidates. Defence companies contribute most heavily to members of both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, who conveniently are the ones responsible for drafting the Pentagon’s budget every year. Just for your information, in the first three quarters of 2022 alone, $101 million were spent on lobbying members of congress — many of whom were a members of the Armed Services Committees.
Apart from lobbying, there is also a revolving door between private defence companies and government institutions that also supports high military spending.
For example, three secretaries of defence, including the current one Lloyd Austin have been involved with defence companies in some form over the past few years. Lloyd Austin, as I have mentioned above, served on the board of Raytheon Technologies and as of Oct. 2020 had stock holdings that were worth around $900,000. Mark Esper — Lloyd Austin’s predecessor — served as a Vice President at Raytheon Technologies for seven years from 2010 to 2017 and was regarded as a top lobbyist for the company. And then his predecessor Jim Mattis served on the board of General Dynamics between 2013 and 2017 and received more than $900,000 worth of compensation.
This shows that the Military-Industrial Complex does have a strong relationship with the Pentagon and members of both the executive and legislative branches.
Conclusion
Going back to the original question, it is evident that the reason the U.S. spends so much on its military is partly down to external threats such as China and Russia, but is also perhaps to an even larger degree down to the strong relationship between defence companies and government officials.
Putting security threats aside, the rise of the Military-Industrial complex is a new phenomenon in U.S. politics. After World War Two the government outsourced more and more work to defence companies, to the point where their profits relied heavily on government contracts. This meant they were financially incentivised to lobby for higher and higher military spending in order for their profits to increase. This is not necessarily an absolute evil, defence contractors often do vital work and are needed in certain cases by the Pentagon to do work they cannot feasibly do themselves. But it does bring to light a question about how powerful the Military-Industrial complex can be allowed to get, and the level to which they can influence government officials.
As Dwight D. Eisenhower once said:
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defence with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
The reason the US spends so much on its military is justified in some ways, but despite this, there is no compelling reason why the US should spend so much on its military at the expense of other government programs. Military spending is artificially high, and at current levels are unsustainable. There are pressing security threats such as China and Russia, but the influence of defence companies cannot be questioned in keeping the Pentagon’s budget so high. Because of their lobbying and campaign donations members of congress have overwhelmingly supported bills that keep military spending high; this is alongside the revolving door between the defence industry and government institutions. And so, the cumulative effect of all these factors, chief among them being the defence sector’s influence, have led to the current spending situation.
Author’s Note
Grateful for Stephen Semler’s charts, they were invaluable for me; go check out more of his work here:
Here is a full list of my sources:
WIKIPEDIA!!!
Max Roser, Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, Hannah Ritchie and Edouard Mathieu (2013) — “Military Spending”. Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: ‘https://ourworldindata.org/military-spending' [Online Resource]
https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/sectors/summary?id=D&cycle=2022
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/07/mark-esper-defense-secretary-raytheon-lobbyist.html
https://jacobin.com/2022/10/pentagon-budget-military-contractors-lobbyists-biden
https://www.investopedia.com/2023-national-defense-authorization-act-6931017
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/military-spending-by-country
https://www.zippia.com/advice/largest-defense-companies/
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/043015/us-vs-china-military-budget.asp