WUNRN
Women's International League
for Peace & Freedom
"The Women’s International
League for Peace and Freedom emphasizes the links between military expenditure,
the arms trade, violent conflict, and the reduction of available resources for
social and economic development."
WILPF Report - Military Spending vs.
Gender Equality - "You Get What You Pay For"
WILPF Statement on the UN Summit on the Millennium Development Goals
20 September 2010
With only five years left until the
2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on world leaders to attend a summit in
New York on 20–22 September to accelerate progress towards the MDGs. The 2010 MDG Report,
produced by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, notes that “unmet
commitments, inadequate resources, lack of focus and accountability, and
insufficient dedication to sustainable development have created shortfalls in
many areas.” Some of these shortfalls, the report explains, were aggravated by
the global food, climate, economic, and financial crises as well as armed
conflict. The report estimates that poverty rates will continue to increase
throughout the world as a result of the persisting global economic crisis.
However, upon releasing its 2010
Yearbook, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute noted, “The
financial crisis and economic recession that have affected most of the globe
appeared
to have little effect on levels of
military expenditure, arms production or arms transfers.” In 2009, worldwide
military expenditure totaled an estimated 1531 billion USD, which is an
increase of 5.9% in real terms compared to 2008 and an increase of 49% since
2000. Of those countries for which data was available, 65% increased their
military spending in real terms in 2009.
The Women’s International League for
Peace and Freedom emphasizes the links between military expenditure, the arms
trade, violent conflict, and the reduction of available resources for social
and economic development. Governments that spend excessive
financial, technological, and human resources on their militaries divert
resources from economic, social, and environmental programmes. The
military-industrial-academic complex—composed of a state’s armed forces, the
government, suppliers of weapons systems and services (corporations), and
academic institutions that conduct research on weapon systems and
designs—absorbs vast amounts of funding that could otherwise be spent on human
security, including the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
Furthermore, funds reserved for development initiatives are increasingly spent
on emergency relief and rehabilitation operations to clean up after violent
conflict.
While military expenditures increase
every year, investment in conflict resolution, peacebuilding, and development lags far behind. As SIPRI notes in the release
of its 2010 Yearbook, while the financial crisis did not seem to affect
military spending, it “probably did undermine the willingness and ability of
major governments and multilateral institutions to invest other, non-military
resources to address the challenges and instabilities that threaten societies
and individuals around the world.”
Since the end of the Cold War, militarism
has been growing in response to an increasingly unstable world, propelling the
world even further into tension and war. Armed conflict—and the constant threat
of war or terrorism—has become both the cause of and response to this growing
militarism. War and the threat of war destroy
lives, infrastructure, and
well-being, creating a culture of fear, violence, and instability. This impedes
development by upsetting social programmes, education, transportation,
business, and tourism, which prevents economic stability, mental well-being,
and sustainable livelihoods. The manufacture and use of weapons also prevents
sustainable ecological development and preservation, creating unequal access to
resources and further impeding poverty reduction initiatives.
The continued investment in
militarism does not make the world safer. Weapons cannot address the main
threats people all over the world are facing today, such as natural disasters,
increased food prices, and lack of adequate health care, education, and a clean
environment. Yet these threats are aggravating arms races and weapons
development. SIPRI has warned that growing competition for natural resources
“may lead to increased military spending as a means of protecting resources
from internal or external threats, while resource revenues are often a source
of funding for arms purchases.” Therefore, in
the context of the 2010 UN Summit on the Millennium Development Goals, WILPF
urges UN member states and civil society to consider, what would you rather pay
for:
One year of the world’s military
spending,
or over 24 years of the additional foreign aid required to
reach the MDGs by 2015?
One year of the world’s military
spending,
or 700 years of the UN regular budget?
One year of the world’s military spending, or 2928 years of the new UN women’s
agency?
Article 26 of the UN Charter
mandates the UN Security Council with formulating a plan to promote the
establishment and maintenance of international peace and security with the
least diversion for armaments of the world’s human and economic resources. The
Security Council has entirely neglected this responsibility and its permanent
members have instead engaged in weapons profiteering and arms races, resulting
in crises of international, national, and human security and of sustainable
development.
The Women’s International League for
Peace and Freedom calls on all governments to:
WILPF also calls on civil society to
push their governments to meet these goals and to make the reduction of
militarism a global norm by reframing the concept of security with a premium on
universal human and ecological security, multilateralism, and a commitment to
cooperative, nonviolent means of conflict resolution. We urge all governments
present in New York this week to commit to making their MDG policies and
strategies consistent with their obligations under Article 26 of the UN Charter
and to remember that establishing peace and security for all humans is not
separate from actions to fight poverty—it is central to these efforts.
Resources and further
reading
The Millennium
Development Goals Report 2010, United Nations, New York, 2010.
“Media Background—Military expenditure,” SIPRI Yearbook
2010, 2 June 2010.
“You get what you pay for!” Women’s International League for
Peace and Freedom, 2009.