As the figures here show, no other country is in the same league in military spending as the United States.

A $265 Billion military budget is five and one-half times that of the second largest spender, Russia.

• It is nearly six times as much as our ally Japan's military budget, and more than eight times that of Germany.
• It is nearly eighteen times as large as the combined spending of the seven countries often identified by the Pentagon as our most likely adversaries (North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Sudan and Cuba).
• The United States and its close allies spend far more than the rest of the world combined. They spend more than thirty-three times as much as the seven potential "enemies" combined!

  Selected Countries	Military Budget
  United States	$265 Billion
  Russia	$48
  Japan	$45
  France	$38
  United Kingdom	$33
  Germany	$32
  China	$32
  Italy	$20
  South Korea	$16
  Saudi Arabia	$14
  Netherlands	$8
  Canada	$8
  India	$8
  Australia	$7
  Brazil	$7
  Israel	$7
  Spain	$7
  Turkey	$6
  North Korea	$5
  Greece	$4
  Norway	$4
  Pakistan	$4
  Iraq	$3
  Iran	$3
  Belgium	$3
  Denmark	$3
  Syria	$2
  Portugal	$2
  Libya	$1
  Vietnam	$1
  Cuba	$0.3
  Sudan	$0.3

"For 45 years of the Cold War we were in an arms race with the Soviet Union. Now it appears we're in an arms race with ourselves."

Admiral Eugene Carroll, Jr., U.S. Navy (Ret.)
Deputy Director
Center for Defense Information

Sources: International Institute for Strategic Studies, Department of Defense.
Prepared by Chris Hellman, Senior Research Analyst, March 3, 1997.