'Militarism and Arms Trade' - An article by Vijay Mehta in Resurgance and Ecologist Magazine. September/October 2012, No. 274

Militarism and Arms Trade

The Real Enemy Against Development and Environment

Vijay Mehta

The Nobel Laureate Konrad Lorenz in his 1973 book. Civilised Man’s Eight Deadly Sins alluded the paradoxical relationship between market economics and the threat of ecological catastrophe, when he addressed:

"All the advantages that man has gained from his ever-deepening understanding of the natural world that surrounds him, his technological, chemical and medical progress, all of which should seem to alleviate human suffering... tends instead to favour humanity's destruction"[i]

One such destructive enemy from which humankind suffers is the military mindset. The cold war has been over for more than two decades, yet the world continue to increase its military spending every year as if we are living at a time of unending conflict.

Militarism is a wider global crisis of civilisation which is degrading our natural environment, our resource base, as well as our material and our psychological well being. It is subject to unlimited growth for the benefit of few, with little or no regard to the impact on the planet and its people.

The latest military expenditure figures for 2011 showed that the arms trade numbers has gone up to $1.74 trillion. US is still number one in military spending with $711 billion with China and Russia catching up fast.

More remarkable is the seismic shift of military spending to Asian countries with frightening prospect of start of a new cold war in Asia. India now is world’s largest importer of arms, along with 4 next largest buyer of arms, all in Asia – South Korea, Pakistan, China and Singapore. Asian countries are diverting a vast portion of their revenue in buying military weapons and armaments, despite millions of their countrymen being deprived of basic rights, food, shelter, education and health care.

Immense damage all over the world is perpetrated by wars and unrestrained military spending. Trillions of dollars – taxpayers’ money has been transferred to war industry which is nothing more than a criminal enterprise. It leads to violence, barbarism and untold suffering to humanity, consequences of which are extreme poverty in the developing world, environmental damage and financial hardships in both rich and poor countries.

Militarism is the key driver of economics of underdevelopment and oppression of developing countries. Western countries install Puppet governments and give them arms to tyrannise and control their own people in return for unfettered access to natural resources such as oil, gas and minerals, which keeps countries in never-ending poverty. Countries are sold arms including small arms, cluster bombs, landmines (110 million buried under the earth)  causing wars, environmental damage , stunting, and poverty.

This extreme poverty is the cause of two billion people subsisting on less than $2 a day. Every 3.6 seconds, a person dies of starvation. Every 30 seconds, a child dies of malaria. Every minute a women dies in childbirth, a genocide of neglect and abandonment. One is reminded of the quotation of Former US President Dwight Eisenhower who said, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in a final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed”

Negative effects of militarism on environment, global and human security including refugees, migrants etc are catastrophic The environmental risks of nuclear contamination leaks are already well known like Chernobyl, 3 mile Island and recent Fukushima disaster. There is an immense possibility of a radiological fire that threatens Fukushima plant 4 site, which is a potential health hazard and a danger children and entire civilisation. What is not well known is the pollution created by US military which is the world’s single largest user of petroleum. Each year it consumes more energy than Nigeria, one of the world’s major oil producers. This profligate use of fuel is extremely harmful to the environment.

More than 36.4 million people in more than 120 countries have been affected by militarism. Refuges, migrants, Internally Displaces Persons (IDPs) and stateless persons flee from fighting or forcibly driven out of their own countries owning to internal disputes.

Yet poorer countries feel they must defend themselves from the ever-more-vast resources the rich world pours into its military industrial complex. As a result, the world’s poorer countries feel that they must compete. India, China, Pakistan, and many other developing countries in which poverty is the overwhelming problem are wasting ever more of their scarce resources on expensive weapons systems and the fuel to operate them, rather than irrigation, pollution control, education and the many other life-improving essentials that their people currently lack.

Africa continues to present the most disheartening example of the connection between militarism, resource-theft and poverty. The World Bank’s 2011 World Development Report is the first to make this nexus of effects its central theme interlinking violent crime and international disputes.

My book, The Economics of Killing has explored the alternatives to this tragic scenario and have advocated for: shift from war economy to green economy, military reduction, cutback on global arms trade, reforms of the monetary system and addressing root causes of violence, wars, terrorism and creating incentives for peace economy. According to Global Peace Index, if countries cut back violence at a rate of 25% for example, it could save global economy to $2 trillion. Eradicating violence altogether, can create a stimulus of $8 trillion, enough to tackle financial, climate change crisis and wipe out extreme poverty[ii].

We need to build a new social political and cultural society that is sustainable, equitable and in harmony with the environment. Stopping militarism and deploying resources towards  completion of the much needed Millennium Development Goals[iii] will leave a lasting legacy for generations to come ensuring the continuation and progress of our sacred civilisation and humanity. Then we will be able to address the paradoxical relationship and vision of Konrad Lorenz’s  challenges facing humanity.

__________________________

Vijay Mehta is an author and Chair of Uniting for Peace. His latest book, “The Economics of Killing: How the West Fuels War and Poverty and Developing World” is published by Pluto Press (UK) and Palgrave Macmillan (USA). www.theeconomicsofkilling.org