Replacing peace dividend with global war tax

Mars, the powerful Roman god of war, is ascendant. Globally, defence spending has reached $2.7 trillion in 2024, a 9.4 percent annual increase, and, on present trends, will reach $6.6 trillion by 2035. The rise of militarism is disconcerting. First, it represents a substantial diversion of economic resources marking a shift from the post-Cold War peace dividend to a war tax. Since 2022, global military spending has risen from 2.2 percent to 2.5 percent of global GDP and from 6.6 percent to 7.1 percent of government budgets. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, cuts in defence spending boosted economic…