Europe is in a time of major in­creases in military expenditures, and the USA has already had very high military budgets for a long time. We hear about quantitative increas­es, less about the qualitative ones, and hardly anything about broader peace creation efforts. With President Trump in office, the USA puts pressure on all the other NATO countries to spend more on the military; the NATO members are now 32 in all, includ­ing the USA, the largest contributor; the USA spends some 3.7 percent of its GDP on the military. Trump says each coun­try should spend 3-5 percent of BNP on defence. Fair enough, many politicians say, since America pays for and controls most of America’s and Europe’s military. Also, many European countries, and left-oriented groups in the countries, have long wanted to reduce the upper hand of the Americans in defence policies, as it all is based on a model established at the end of WWII, indeed with America at the top. It is still a fact that America has mili­tary personnel and installations in many foreign countries, including in Europe, over eighty years after the war. America also has major military R&D activities, and it certainly has huge military trade with its allies and beyond. Without that, the American economy would have been much smaller and less innovative.

I shall not go into details about the sizes of the different European coun­tries’ and NATO members’ budgets. Yet, for comparison, it should be mentioned that the USA spends about ten times as much as Russia on the military, even though Russia has certainly increased its expenditures much since the be­ginning of the invasion of Ukraine. But figures from 2023 show that the USA spent over USD 1000 billion on the mil­itary, and Russia spent about USD 109 billion. The increases in military bud­gets by many European countries have gone up very much in recent years, with some countries now spending double or triple on defence as compared to a few years ago. Also, manufacturing of equipment, ammunition, advanced mil­itary planes, and so on, and in our time, drones and other new and advanced technology. The nuclear arsenals are huge in the USA and Russia.

Again, there is a major rearmament of the West, especially the European NATO member countries, with Finland and Sweden as the latest NATO members from 2023 and 2024, respectively. Swe­den was a neutral, yet clearly Western oriented country for hundreds of years. Today, the country spends about 2.4 per­cent of its GDP on defence, intending to increase it further. Although many Euro­pean countries are small in population, their economies are sizeable. Norway, for example, with a population of just 5.6 million people, has the world’s 32nd largest economy, and it has reached 2 percent of GDP on defence and plans to increase it further. It is one of the major donors of military and humanitarian as­sistance to Ukraine, and spends about one percent on development aid.

The main reason for Europe’s huge re­armament at this time has to do with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and fur­ther tension between Russia and the West, and also trade and other compe­tition for world leadership between Chi­na and Europe, indeed including the USA. China’s economic development remains on steady rise. Russia’s economy is rela­tively small, about the same size as that of Italy, but Russia is the world’s largest country by territory, rich in minerals and natural resources, and has several oth­er advantages, yet, with shortages in de­mocracy development and innovation, considered essential for long-term stabil­ity and development. Russia’s long-last­ing conflicts with and invasions of most of its fourteen immediate neighbours, is a scar on Russia’s history and reputation, and its ability for future peaceful internal and external development.

The Soviet Union ended in 1989/92, and at that time there was hope and pos­sibilities for a peaceful, new course for the country. Alas, both Europe and Rus­sia missed the opportunity. In hindsight, many would say that the way Ukraine was separated from Russia in 1991 to become an independent country (yet, having to give up its nuclear weap­ons), was overambitious and not well planned. But there were possibilities for other arrangements in the two decades leading up to Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine on 14 February 2022, after its earlier annexation of Crimea and dis­putes for the returning to Russia of some areas in Eastern Ukraine, with the Minsk Agreements being unsuccessful. When the situation has become as it now is, it will be complicated to return to peace­ful and cordial relations between two countries who have many similarities and would mostly benefit from peace­ful cooperation. We mostly blame Rus­sia for its aggression, with good reason. However, NATO and Europe should have been able to avoid the ongoing military conflict, and after it had begun, NATO should have played a peace-creating role. It is also a fact that Europe, includ­ing the EU, should have played a much more proactive role in helping Russia in its change major processes from com­munism to capitalism with economic. I am afraid that historians will not look kindly at what happened; new oppor­tunities to modernise Russia, with its many structural problems, will take long to reoccur, and the restoring of modern international relations.

In addition to the direct conflict be­tween Russia and the West, with the more than three-year long Russia-Ukraine War, there are several other war and peace issues that are not ad­dressed. The enormous increases in mil­itary budgets seem to be made without fundamental discussions of the reasons for the specific military investments, and certainly, the broader philosophy and purpose of defence. In many ways, the cart has been put before the horse. Huge investments are made without the necessary analyses of what to do and why, even if considered within a military thinking, and certainly if considered in broader, alternative and sustainable peace development perspectives.

It is difficult to accept the enormous increases in military expenses in the West, but also in other countries, in­cluding poor African countries. It seems that the international community, in­cluding the UN, does not place peace issues high enough on the agenda – al­though it is obvious that their early ini­tiatives would have avoided conflicts, cost less money, and had less devasta­tion on people’s displacement and suf­fering. Indeed, lower military expenses would leave money and people for other essential tasks, such as health and edu­cation, and peacebuilding and develop­ment. There is urgent need and work to be done in the world, certainly now when differences grow between rich and poor everywhere.

Without more sharing of resources and democratic development efforts, the future will not be peaceful and prosper­ous. This we all know; the problem is that we don’t follow the obvious knowl­edge. It is not possible to understand why NATO, with all its advanced knowl­edge and experts, can allow the Russia-Ukraine War to go on – and that the un­precedented rearmament can escalate. In the last few decades, we were many who had expected to see more peace and harmony in our time, and reduced mili­tary expenditure. Alas, our leaders and we the people, too, seem to have gone the wrong way. Now it is time to turn around before it is too late, although it is already in the eleventh hour.

To begin the major change now would be a very appropriate action at the end of this year’s Ramadan, and towards the end of Lent. Even those who don’t pray often may have realized that prayer is one of the few options left – and prayer always has the key aspects of listening and trying to see issues from the other sides. In it all, there is hope for a better world and a promised land – and then it is for each of us to do what we can and help create peace and peaceful thinking in practice – InshahAllah.

Wishing you Ramadan Kareem and Eid-ul-Fitr Mubarak

Atle Hetland
The writer is a senior Norwegian social scientist with experience from university, diplomacy and development aid. He can be reached at atlehetland@yahoo.com