Thomas Gaist – Global military spending increased in 2015

Spending on weapons and other military costs grew by more than one percent in 2015, marking the first year of growth in total military purchasing by governments worldwide since 2011, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute found in a report published Tuesday. Total military purchases reached $1,676 billion in 2015, or nearly $1.7 trillion, consuming some 2.3 percent of global …

Jonathan Marshall – Nazi Roots of Ukraine’s Conflict

The latest issue of Foreign Policy magazine, one of the leading journals in its field, offers a two-page photo essay on “what to see, do, and buy” in Lviv, a picturesque city in the Western Ukraine. “Amid the turmoil that has rocked Ukraine over the past two years,” the article gushes, “Lviv has stood firmly as a stronghold of national …

Nuclear Threat Escalating Beyond Political Rhetoric

As a new cold war between the United States and Russia picks up steam, the nuclear threat is in danger of escalating – perhaps far beyond political rhetoric. Randy Riddel, a former senior political affairs officer with the U.N. Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) told IPS he pities the general public. “They’re being fed two competing narratives about nukes,” he …

Blood Money: These Companies and People Make Billions of Dollars From War

War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it. –George Orwell The late United States Marine Corps Major GeneralSmedley D. Butler is perhaps most famous for his post-retirement speech titled “War is a Racket.” In the early 1930s, Butler presented the speech on a nationwide tour. It was so popular that he wrote …

Study: China Has Grown to World’s 3rd-Biggest Arms Exporter

China has overtaken Germany to become the world’s third-biggest arms exporter, although its 5 percent share remains small compared to the combined 58 percent of exports from the U.S. and Russia, a new study says. China’s share of the global arms market rose 143 percent from 2010 to 2014, a period during which the total volume of global arms transfers …