By Ben Norton / Geopolitical Economy Report
The United States is by far the biggest arms dealer on Earth, responsible for 43% of all weapons exports from 2020 to 2024.
The US transferred 7.3 times more weapons than China, and 5.5 times more than Russia.
In fact, Russia’s global arms exports declined by 64% from 2020 to 2024, and China’s fell by 5.4%, whereas those of the US grew by 21%.
There were also large increases in weapons exports during this five-year period in Italy (+138%), Spain (+29%), France (+11%), and South Korea (+4.9%).
This is according to data compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
The 10 largest arms exporters from 2020-24 were the following:
- United States (43% of the world)
- France (9.6%)
- Russia (7.8%)
- China (5.9%)
- Germany (5.6%)
- Italy (4.8%)
- United Kingdom (3.6%)
- Israel (3.1%)
- Spain (3.0%)
- South Korea (2.2%)
The top 10 importers of weapons from 2020-24 were the following:
- Ukraine (8.8% of the world)
- India (8.3%)
- Qatar (6.8%)
- Saudi Arabia (6.8%)
- Pakistan (4.6%)
- Japan (3.9%)
- Australia (3.5%)
- Egypt (3.3%)
- United States (3.1%)
- Kuwait (2.9%)
European arms purchases and military spending skyrocket
Weapons imports in Europe more than doubled from 2020-24, and 64% of these arms came from the US.
During his first term as US president, Donald Trump demanded that European members of NATO increase defense spending to 2% of GDP.
23 of the 32 NATO members did devote at least 2% of GDP to military expenditure as of 2024.
However, in his second term, Trump has moved the goalposts, and he is now ordering European members of NATO to boost defense spending to a staggering 5% of GDP.
The European Commission announced a plan in March to loan €150 billion to EU member states to buy military equipment.
Trump knows that an increase in European arms spending will boost demand for weapons and ammunition produced by the US military-industrial complex, and he hopes it can help reduce the enormous US current account deficit (that is, its trade deficit with the rest of the world).
USA is world’s top military spender, by far
In addition to exporting more weapons than any other nation, the United States spends the most on its military, by far.
The US represented 37% of global military expenditure in 2023, according to the most recently available data from SIPRI.
This means that the US dedicated more money to its armed forces than the next nine largest spenders combined.
The US spent three times more on its military than China, and eight times more than Russia.
The 15 countries with the biggest defense budgets in 2023 were the following:
- United States (37% of the world)
- China (12%)
- Russia (4.5%)
- India (3.4%)
- Saudi Arabia (3.1%)
- United Kingdom (3.1%)
- Germany (2.7%)
- Ukraine (2.7%)
- France (2.5%)
- Japan (2.1%)
- South Korea (2.0%)
- Italy (1.5%)
- Australia (1.3%)
- Poland (1.3%)
- Israel (1.1%)
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Ben Norton
Ben Norton is a journalist, writer, and filmmaker. He is the founder and editor of Geopolitical Economy Report, and is based in China.
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