At the end of Emmanuel Macron's second term, France's military spending
will have doubled. Amounting to 32 billion euros in 2017 and 47.2
billion this year, they should reach 69 billion in 2030, at the end of
the Military Programming Law (LPM) adopted by Parliament in July 2023
(1) . What are they used for and for what issues? Decryption. ---- The
government justifies such an increase with rhetoric about the return of
war to our doors due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But - do we need
to specify this? -, it is rare for military spending to decrease. Under
the Fifth Republic, this was only the case for around ten years
following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War
between 1991 and 2000. What we have incorrectly called the " dividends
of peace.
Let's start with a question of vocabulary: the term military
expenditure, particularly when it is mentioned in the media, refers in
the majority of cases only to the amount of the budget allocated to the
Ministry of the Armed Forces. However, other ministries include expenses
contributing to the militarization of society in their budget. In
addition, different organizations and industrialists also invest in the
military or the production of dual-use goods (civil and military).
This voluntary opacity allows the government to attenuate the perception
of the weight of the military footprint on society and the heavy
financial constraint that this places on other budgets and functions
exercised by the State, whether education or health. or the social.
Establishing the precise amount of France's military spending would
already be an essential first step in democracy.
That said, let's get our hands dirty in military spending and war
preparation. With all the usual precautions, because the data we have
comes from documents released by the government. In addition to voting
on the budget for the armies each year, parliamentarians adopt military
programming laws (LPM) which set France's main directions and
investments for the armies over several years. The latest one in force
plans to allocate to the armies the sum of 413 billion euros for the
years 2024 to 2030. A sharp increase compared to the previous one which
amounted to 295 billion euros.
According to estimates established by NATO services, France's military
expenditure in 2023 was distributed between 40.1% for personnel costs;
27.7% for operation, maintenance and other expenses; 3.2% for
infrastructure and 29.1% for the purchase of arms and research &
development (2).
A large part of the credits are absorbed by the nuclear arsenal which
structures the entire army model developed in France, as well as the
Defense Industrial and Technological Base, the famous BITD in official
jargon. But without it being possible to know precisely the cost of
nuclear weapons. Indeed, as part of the work of the last LPM, no amount
is indicated, even though the government has just launched work for the
complete renewal of the nuclear arsenal (bombs and vectors). Questioned
by parliamentarians on this subject, the Minister of the Armed Forces
simply indicated the percentage of 13% of the LPM, or an annual average
of 7.67 billion euros. A sum which, however, only corresponds to the
manufacture and maintenance of nuclear weapons, but does not include the
salaries of military personnel assigned to this weapon and the related
operating costs, nor the cost of dismantling and management of military
nuclear waste ( 9% of all nuclear waste in France).
War and its preparation are fueled by technological advances and
technological advances in turn fuel war. Today it is drones that
symbolize this permanent back and forth. From the size of a mouse to
that of an airplane, aerial, underwater or terrestrial, their
appearances are as varied as their uses. Not only protean, drones are
also becoming more and more multifunctional, capable of spotting targets
and shooting, all piloted remotely by soldiers with a virtual reality
headset. Their big advantages: on the one hand, depending on the model,
they are cheaper to produce and use than previous equivalent systems. On
the other hand, they allow the soldier to be distanced from his target
to somehow "make his task easier" to kill without direct confrontation
with the other... like in a video game.
This robotization of war will only accelerate with the development of
artificial intelligence, as shown by the ongoing war in Gaza where the
Israeli army is using it to accelerate the process of designating
targets, in fact accepting a high rate of errors as shown by the
Israeli-Palestinian online media +972 Magazine (3).
France, which had fallen far behind in the development of a drone
industry, is currently working hard to avoid being left behind, having
notably established partnerships with the Israeli arms industry (4). A
significant part of the investment credits provided for by the LPM
concern this area of droneization and robotization of war.
To facilitate its social acceptance, the increase in military spending
is presented as an important and beneficial driver of economic growth,
particularly in sectors linked to industrial production and technology,
creating numerous employment opportunities, stimulating the innovation
and promoting the development of high-tech industries. Furthermore, it
would generate strong export capacity and stimulate technological
breakthroughs in areas such as, for example, artificial intelligence or
aerospace engineering, with spillover effects into civilian sectors,
thus contributing to overall national competitiveness. .
Except that this is false as various studies have demonstrated: military
production is above all a waste of public goods, raw materials, energy,
which is carried out to the detriment of collective well-being and
encourages wars.
Likewise, in the official logorrhea of the political-military-industrial
complex, the notion of sovereignty and national independence is always
highlighted which would be reinforced by this investment in the
military. However, one figure does not really exist in the data
available on the subject: that of imports made, whether in raw
materials, in essential components... Not to mention the impact and
contribution of the military on the worsening of the ecological crisis!
Since the outbreak of the war led by Russia against Ukraine, we have
witnessed an escalation of speeches in the form of calls for rearmament,
particularly industrial, in favor of the transition to a "war economy".
The first step is for the government to put pressure on manufacturers so
that they increase production rates and, in some ways, renationalize
production. Indeed, the logic of military production has not escaped for
several decades the developments in different industrial and
technological sectors with a search for maximum profitability leading in
particular to the limitation of stocks and optimization by relocating
certain activities, including outside the territory. Except that when it
comes to quickly producing larger quantities, for example, of
ammunition, this poses a problem if stocks of critical raw materials or
components are not immediately available!
But this warlike escalation also aims to create pressure on public
opinion so that they accept this overinvestment in weapons to the
detriment of other social needs. A militarization of minds which
combines in different areas such as the strengthening of reserve forces,
the penetration of the army into schools, the generalization of the SNU
(Universal National Service) by wielding the stick for those who refuse
and the carrot for those who carry it out.
However, all wars - and in particular those in which France is involved
- show the failure of the military solution to conflicts. Just take the
example of the Sahel. Strengthening collective security is based on the
implementation of criteria other than the exercise of military force.
This is what the UN already said in 1946 in its constitutive charter
(article 26) adopted by all the States constituted at the time: "In
order to promote the establishment and maintenance of peace and security
international organizations by diverting only the minimum of the world's
human and economic resources towards armaments, the Security Council is
responsible, with the assistance of the Staff Committee provided for in
Article 47, of developing plans which will be submitted to the Members
of the Organization with a view to establishing a system of arms
regulation.» We are far from it!
Patrice Bouveret, Armaments Observatory
The Armaments Observatory is an independent expertise and documentation
center created in 1984 and based in Lyon. To find out more:
https://www.obsarm.info/
Global military spending on the rise
Sipri (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) estimates total
global military spending at $2,443 billion in 2023, an increase of 6.8%
in real terms compared to 2022 (1). This is the largest year-over-year
increase since 2009. The 10 biggest spenders in 2023 - led by the United
States, China and Russia - have all increased their military spending.
France is in 9th place.
Global military spending grew for the ninth consecutive year, with
particularly large increases recorded in Europe, Asia, Oceania and the
Middle East.
"The unprecedented increase in military spending is a direct response to
the deterioration of international peace and security," underlines Dr
Nan Tian, senior researcher at Sipri's military spending and arms
production program. "States are giving priority to military force, which
risks fueling the "action-reaction" spiral in an increasingly unstable
geopolitical and security context.»
Note that in 2023 the military expenditure of the 31 members of NATO
amounted to 1,341 billion dollars, or 55% of the world total. A decade
after NATO members officially committed to spending at least 2% of their
GDP on military spending, 11 of the 31 members have reached or exceeded
this target in 2023 - a record since the decision was taken. this
commitment.
Estimated military spending in the Middle East increased by 9.0% to
reach $200 billion in 2023. This is the largest annual increase ever
recorded in the region over the past ten years. Those of Israel - the
second largest in the region after those of Saudi Arabia - increased by
24% to reach $27.5 billion in 2023. This increase in spending is mainly
due to the military offensive of scale carried out in Gaza in response
to the Hamas attack in southern Israel in October 2023.
(1) Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2023, sipri.org
Notes
(1) Source: https://fr.statista.com/statistique... from documents
published by the Ministry of the Armed Forces.
(2) "Defense spending by NATO countries (2014-2023)", NATO press
release: https://www.nato.int/cps/fr/natohq/..., published on July 7,
2023 and accessed on April 20, 2024.
(3) https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-...
(4) Cf. "Tactical drone: France under influence", Les Notes de
l'Observatoire n° 3, November 2015, 18 p. Available:
https://www.obsarm.info/spip.php?ar...
http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4187
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
will have doubled. Amounting to 32 billion euros in 2017 and 47.2
billion this year, they should reach 69 billion in 2030, at the end of
the Military Programming Law (LPM) adopted by Parliament in July 2023
(1) . What are they used for and for what issues? Decryption. ---- The
government justifies such an increase with rhetoric about the return of
war to our doors due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But - do we need
to specify this? -, it is rare for military spending to decrease. Under
the Fifth Republic, this was only the case for around ten years
following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War
between 1991 and 2000. What we have incorrectly called the " dividends
of peace.
Let's start with a question of vocabulary: the term military
expenditure, particularly when it is mentioned in the media, refers in
the majority of cases only to the amount of the budget allocated to the
Ministry of the Armed Forces. However, other ministries include expenses
contributing to the militarization of society in their budget. In
addition, different organizations and industrialists also invest in the
military or the production of dual-use goods (civil and military).
This voluntary opacity allows the government to attenuate the perception
of the weight of the military footprint on society and the heavy
financial constraint that this places on other budgets and functions
exercised by the State, whether education or health. or the social.
Establishing the precise amount of France's military spending would
already be an essential first step in democracy.
That said, let's get our hands dirty in military spending and war
preparation. With all the usual precautions, because the data we have
comes from documents released by the government. In addition to voting
on the budget for the armies each year, parliamentarians adopt military
programming laws (LPM) which set France's main directions and
investments for the armies over several years. The latest one in force
plans to allocate to the armies the sum of 413 billion euros for the
years 2024 to 2030. A sharp increase compared to the previous one which
amounted to 295 billion euros.
According to estimates established by NATO services, France's military
expenditure in 2023 was distributed between 40.1% for personnel costs;
27.7% for operation, maintenance and other expenses; 3.2% for
infrastructure and 29.1% for the purchase of arms and research &
development (2).
A large part of the credits are absorbed by the nuclear arsenal which
structures the entire army model developed in France, as well as the
Defense Industrial and Technological Base, the famous BITD in official
jargon. But without it being possible to know precisely the cost of
nuclear weapons. Indeed, as part of the work of the last LPM, no amount
is indicated, even though the government has just launched work for the
complete renewal of the nuclear arsenal (bombs and vectors). Questioned
by parliamentarians on this subject, the Minister of the Armed Forces
simply indicated the percentage of 13% of the LPM, or an annual average
of 7.67 billion euros. A sum which, however, only corresponds to the
manufacture and maintenance of nuclear weapons, but does not include the
salaries of military personnel assigned to this weapon and the related
operating costs, nor the cost of dismantling and management of military
nuclear waste ( 9% of all nuclear waste in France).
War and its preparation are fueled by technological advances and
technological advances in turn fuel war. Today it is drones that
symbolize this permanent back and forth. From the size of a mouse to
that of an airplane, aerial, underwater or terrestrial, their
appearances are as varied as their uses. Not only protean, drones are
also becoming more and more multifunctional, capable of spotting targets
and shooting, all piloted remotely by soldiers with a virtual reality
headset. Their big advantages: on the one hand, depending on the model,
they are cheaper to produce and use than previous equivalent systems. On
the other hand, they allow the soldier to be distanced from his target
to somehow "make his task easier" to kill without direct confrontation
with the other... like in a video game.
This robotization of war will only accelerate with the development of
artificial intelligence, as shown by the ongoing war in Gaza where the
Israeli army is using it to accelerate the process of designating
targets, in fact accepting a high rate of errors as shown by the
Israeli-Palestinian online media +972 Magazine (3).
France, which had fallen far behind in the development of a drone
industry, is currently working hard to avoid being left behind, having
notably established partnerships with the Israeli arms industry (4). A
significant part of the investment credits provided for by the LPM
concern this area of droneization and robotization of war.
To facilitate its social acceptance, the increase in military spending
is presented as an important and beneficial driver of economic growth,
particularly in sectors linked to industrial production and technology,
creating numerous employment opportunities, stimulating the innovation
and promoting the development of high-tech industries. Furthermore, it
would generate strong export capacity and stimulate technological
breakthroughs in areas such as, for example, artificial intelligence or
aerospace engineering, with spillover effects into civilian sectors,
thus contributing to overall national competitiveness. .
Except that this is false as various studies have demonstrated: military
production is above all a waste of public goods, raw materials, energy,
which is carried out to the detriment of collective well-being and
encourages wars.
Likewise, in the official logorrhea of the political-military-industrial
complex, the notion of sovereignty and national independence is always
highlighted which would be reinforced by this investment in the
military. However, one figure does not really exist in the data
available on the subject: that of imports made, whether in raw
materials, in essential components... Not to mention the impact and
contribution of the military on the worsening of the ecological crisis!
Since the outbreak of the war led by Russia against Ukraine, we have
witnessed an escalation of speeches in the form of calls for rearmament,
particularly industrial, in favor of the transition to a "war economy".
The first step is for the government to put pressure on manufacturers so
that they increase production rates and, in some ways, renationalize
production. Indeed, the logic of military production has not escaped for
several decades the developments in different industrial and
technological sectors with a search for maximum profitability leading in
particular to the limitation of stocks and optimization by relocating
certain activities, including outside the territory. Except that when it
comes to quickly producing larger quantities, for example, of
ammunition, this poses a problem if stocks of critical raw materials or
components are not immediately available!
But this warlike escalation also aims to create pressure on public
opinion so that they accept this overinvestment in weapons to the
detriment of other social needs. A militarization of minds which
combines in different areas such as the strengthening of reserve forces,
the penetration of the army into schools, the generalization of the SNU
(Universal National Service) by wielding the stick for those who refuse
and the carrot for those who carry it out.
However, all wars - and in particular those in which France is involved
- show the failure of the military solution to conflicts. Just take the
example of the Sahel. Strengthening collective security is based on the
implementation of criteria other than the exercise of military force.
This is what the UN already said in 1946 in its constitutive charter
(article 26) adopted by all the States constituted at the time: "In
order to promote the establishment and maintenance of peace and security
international organizations by diverting only the minimum of the world's
human and economic resources towards armaments, the Security Council is
responsible, with the assistance of the Staff Committee provided for in
Article 47, of developing plans which will be submitted to the Members
of the Organization with a view to establishing a system of arms
regulation.» We are far from it!
Patrice Bouveret, Armaments Observatory
The Armaments Observatory is an independent expertise and documentation
center created in 1984 and based in Lyon. To find out more:
https://www.obsarm.info/
Global military spending on the rise
Sipri (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) estimates total
global military spending at $2,443 billion in 2023, an increase of 6.8%
in real terms compared to 2022 (1). This is the largest year-over-year
increase since 2009. The 10 biggest spenders in 2023 - led by the United
States, China and Russia - have all increased their military spending.
France is in 9th place.
Global military spending grew for the ninth consecutive year, with
particularly large increases recorded in Europe, Asia, Oceania and the
Middle East.
"The unprecedented increase in military spending is a direct response to
the deterioration of international peace and security," underlines Dr
Nan Tian, senior researcher at Sipri's military spending and arms
production program. "States are giving priority to military force, which
risks fueling the "action-reaction" spiral in an increasingly unstable
geopolitical and security context.»
Note that in 2023 the military expenditure of the 31 members of NATO
amounted to 1,341 billion dollars, or 55% of the world total. A decade
after NATO members officially committed to spending at least 2% of their
GDP on military spending, 11 of the 31 members have reached or exceeded
this target in 2023 - a record since the decision was taken. this
commitment.
Estimated military spending in the Middle East increased by 9.0% to
reach $200 billion in 2023. This is the largest annual increase ever
recorded in the region over the past ten years. Those of Israel - the
second largest in the region after those of Saudi Arabia - increased by
24% to reach $27.5 billion in 2023. This increase in spending is mainly
due to the military offensive of scale carried out in Gaza in response
to the Hamas attack in southern Israel in October 2023.
(1) Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2023, sipri.org
Notes
(1) Source: https://fr.statista.com/statistique... from documents
published by the Ministry of the Armed Forces.
(2) "Defense spending by NATO countries (2014-2023)", NATO press
release: https://www.nato.int/cps/fr/natohq/..., published on July 7,
2023 and accessed on April 20, 2024.
(3) https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-...
(4) Cf. "Tactical drone: France under influence", Les Notes de
l'Observatoire n° 3, November 2015, 18 p. Available:
https://www.obsarm.info/spip.php?ar...
http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4187
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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