Wednesday, April 25, 2012

As Europe falters Asia's defence spending grows and grows

North Korea, the US estimates the country's defence spending to be nearly a quarter of the size of its economy - compared with less than 3% for South Korea, or just 1% for Japan. Overall military spending in Asia has been growing while the West has been cutting back.

Especially in Europe, and here in the UK we have seen mass Army redundancies and the scaling back of our RAF and Royal Navy. Asia's top spender, China, has more than trebled its official defence expenditure over the past ten years.

Why is this happening? Don't we live in a world governed by the UN and diplomacy? Militarism has been dead for 70 years, it doesn't work. So why the arms race? Who is China threatened by? India and Pakistan have Nuclear Weapons, Iran wants one now too; China is feeling the pressure...