BICC: Israel is the world’s most militarized country

March 16, 2011 by IPB

The Bonn International Center for Conversion has released their list of the world’s most militarized countries. BICC takes not only the raw sum of expenditures for each country, but puts it against each country’s investments in other sectors like health care. Israel ranked as the world’s most militarized state, with Singapore, Syria, Jordan, Russia, North Korea, Cyprus, and Greece, Kuwait, and Belarus rounding out the top ten.

The United States, far and away the world’s biggest military spender, ranked a more middling 34th, while China, the second largest spender, ranked way down at 88th.

Take a good look at the list. It’s an excellent reminder that even states that don’t spend enormous sums on their militaries compared to the traditional top spenders can still administer highly militarized societies.