Military spending down worldwide in 2014. - World military expenditure stood at $1,800 billion in 2014, a slight fall of 0.4% in real terms since 2013, according to the figures published on Monday 13 April by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Additionally, the number of countries spending more than 4% of their GDP on the military sector has increased, from 15 to 20 in 2014, and only three of these countries have a democratic system of governance. Having fallen for the third year in a row, world military expenditure has levelled off as reductions in the United States and Western Europe were largely offset by increases in Asia and Oceania, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Africa, SIPRI stresses. Spending in Latin America was virtually unchanged. “While total world military spending is mostly unchanged, some regions, such as the Middle East and much of Africa, are continuing to see rapid build-ups that are placing an increasingly high burden on many economies. These increases partly reflect worsening security situations, but that in many cases they are also the product of corruption, vested interests and autocratic governance”, commented Dr Sam Perlo-Freeman, head of SIPRI's Military Expenditure project. In the US, military spending was down by 6.5% as part of ongoing budget deficit reduction measures. In all, spending has now fallen by 20% since its peak in 2010. However, current US military spending is still 45% higher than in 2001, before the terrorist attacks of 11 September. China, Russia and Saudi Arabia, the three other countries with the highest military expenditure, spending was up substantially last year, with an increase of 17% for Saudi Arabia in particular, the largest increase of any of the “Top 15” spenders worldwide. SIPRI also notes that the crisis in Ukraine has had a considerable impact on the spending of many European countries in central Europe, the Baltic states and the Nordic countries, which have increased their military spending. On the other hand, there is no indication of any similar tendency in the rest of Western Europe: the five countries of the region with the highest military spending (France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Spain) have all announced further cuts, albeit mostly modest, for 2015. However, Germany has announced its intention to increase spending in the medium term. Ukraine for its part increased its spending by more than 20% in 2014 and is planning to more than double spending on the Armed Forces in 2015. Russia is also budgeting for increased spending in 2015, but this was planned before the Ukraine conflict. Military expenditure in Asia and Oceania rose by 5% in 2014, to stand at $439 billion. This increase is mostly down to a 9.7% increase for China, which spent around $216 billion. Among the other major spenders, Australia increased its spending by 6.7%. South Korea and India recorded smaller increases of 2.3% and 1.8% respectively, whilst Japan's spending remained steady. Vietnam, which has had tensions with China, increased its spending by 9.6%. Conversely, Indonesia broke its trend of several years of increases with a 10% cut in 2014. In Latin America, Brazil's spending fell slightly due to economic difficulties, while crisis-hit Venezuelan had the largest fall in the region (-34%). Meanwhile, Mexico increased its spending by 11% due to the ongoing war with drug cartels. Military spending in Africa was up by 5.9%, driven by the two highest spenders of the region, Algeria and Angola, which increased their military spending by 12% and 6.7% respectively. SIPRI goes on to state that the impact of falling oil prices in late 2014 on the military expenditure of the oil-producing countries of the Middle East in certain regions of Africa, Asia and Russia is still hard to quantify. Some countries may have been more affected than others, such as Russia, which has announced a cut in military spending for 2015. (Isabelle Lamberty)