The proposal to increase U.S. military spending in the 2026 fiscal year to $1.01 trillion — which budget documents released by the White House on Friday noted was up by 13 percent from the previous year — is part of a global trend that emerged after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a Swedish group that has documented arms sales and transfers around the world since its founding in 1966, said that over 100 countries increased their military spending last year.
“As governments increasingly prioritize military security, often at the expense of other budget areas, the economic and social trade-offs could have significant effects on societies for years to come,” wrote Xiao Liang, a researcher at the institute, in a report released on Monday.
One defense-related area whose funding would be cut entirely is U.S. participation in U.N. peacekeeping missions.
The new Pentagon budget would increase the share of the United States’ $22 trillion gross domestic product spent on the military to 3.6 percent, according to data from the World Bank.
In spending $997 billion, the U.S. allocated more money to defense in 2024 than any other nation — a sum equal to 37 percent of all global military expenditures, according to the institute.
