Military Spending on the Rise while Health Budgets Remain Insufficient in Confronting the COVID-19 Pandemic. With the release of SIPRI’s newest report, showing global military spending in 2019 at a new high of US$1,917 billion, the International Peace Bureau (IPB) is calling for an end to the military spending pandemic, starting with an annual reduction of military expenditure of 10% and a complete ban on nuclear weapons.
Militaries and arms cannot and will not save us from this pandemic. Nearly $2 trillion on destructive weapons and soldiers will not save the 250 million people facing starvation or provide jobs to the hundreds of millions currently unemployed. Just $35 billion could provide social protection to the 28 poorest countries. We must imagine how much progress could be made if we instead committed these resources to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Let us demilitarize the world and invest in global peace and diplomacy.
Download the statement here.
Read the statement on the IPB website here