STOCKHOLM (Chatnewstv.com) — Global security deteriorated further in 2024 as wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and elsewhere drove world military spending to record highs and pushed fatalities from armed conflicts to their worst level in six years, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
The SIPRI Yearbook 2025, released Friday, found that military expenditures climbed for the 10th straight year to an estimated $2.7 trillion. Fatalities from armed conflicts surged to 239,000, up from 188,000 in 2023.
“Global security continued to deteriorate throughout 2024,” SIPRI Director Dan Smith said. “With the return of Donald Trump to the White House, none of the three great powers — the United States, China and Russia — is committed to upholding the world order.”
Wars Intensify in Europe and the Middle East
The war in Ukraine accounted for the sharpest increase in deaths, with Europe recording 77,771 fatalities in 2024, double the previous year. Russia controlled about one-fifth of Ukrainian territory at year’s end, SIPRI said.
In the Middle East, the toll in Gaza soared, with more than 45,500 Palestinians killed and 90 percent of the enclave’s population displaced. Fighting spilled into Lebanon, Syria and Iran, where direct clashes with Israel marked a dangerous escalation. Assad’s government collapsed late in the year, sending Syria’s civil war into a new phase.
Sudan’s civil war caused nearly a quarter of all conflict-related deaths in sub-Saharan Africa, even as violence eased somewhat in Mali, Burkina Faso and Somalia.
Record Military Spending
The United States remained the world’s largest military spender at $997 billion, followed by China at $314 billion. Europe saw the steepest increases — up 83 percent since 2015 — with Germany, Poland and Sweden among NATO states sharply boosting budgets. Israel’s military spending jumped 65 percent in 2024 amid its war in Gaza.
SIPRI noted that 17 of NATO’s 30 European members met or exceeded the alliance’s guideline of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense.
Nuclear Arsenals Expanding
At the start of 2025, nine nuclear-armed states possessed about 12,241 warheads, of which 3,912 were deployed. While overall totals continue to decline slowly due to dismantlement of retired U.S. and Russian weapons, new production and modernization programs in China, India, Pakistan and North Korea threaten to reverse that trend.
“The era of nuclear weapons reductions appears to have ended,” Smith warned. “The signs are that a new qualitative nuclear arms race is gearing up.”
China expanded its arsenal from 500 to 600 warheads in 2024, while Russia and the U.S. pursued large-scale modernization of delivery systems and production facilities.
Arms Production and Transfers
The world’s 100 largest arms companies earned $632 billion in 2023, with U.S. firms accounting for half. Mergers in the West are reshaping the industry toward high-tech weapons such as drones and cyber systems.
International arms transfers remained stable compared with the past 15 years, but Ukraine became the largest single arms importer, receiving weapons from at least 35 countries. The United States, France, Russia, China and Germany together accounted for 71 percent of global arms exports.
Emerging Threats
The report highlighted the growing use of missiles and armed drones in conflicts from Ukraine to Gaza and across Africa, where more than 940 civilians have been killed by UAV strikes since 2021.
Other security risks include chemical and biological weapons concerns, cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, the militarization of outer space, and the unregulated rise of artificial intelligence in warfare.
“Global security is under enormous strain,” Smith said. “Without renewed commitment to arms control and cooperation, the risks of escalation and catastrophe will only grow.”
