Over the past year, the world has witnessed an alarming escalation of violence: the genocide in Gaza, the war in Ukraine, the civil war in Sudan, the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and more than 30 other armed conflicts in the Global South (half of them in Africa) have led to millions of people being killed, injured, losing their livelihood or being forcibly displaced. Still further violent conflicts loom on the horizon as global tensions escalate and competition between nations grows while international law and conflict mediation and resolution bodies like the United Nations are sidelined or ignored.
Militarism is clearly fuelling all these wars and violence, but despite calls to move away from weapons and violence to peace negotiations and disarmament, governments are doubling down on a recipe for disaster by significantly increasing their military budgets. Instead of seeking paths toward peace by investing in diplomacy, humanitarian aid, and conflict resolution, they’ve decided to hand out more and more money to the arms industry. History has repeatedly shown that militarization brings neither peace nor security; it perpetuates cycles of destruction, suffering, and injustice and fuels climate breakdown. Militarization is therefore not a solution, but a part of the problem. How is more of the same going to give any result other than more war, violence and injustice?
All this violence is also being fuelled by increasingly aggressive and openly supremacist discourses and policies from a rising far right and a rightwards shifting center, which exacerbate a climate of fear and present further militarisation and securitisation of our societies as the only path forward, thus closing off any public debate.
Spending money in war and rearmament means diverting valuable resources away from our wellbeing. Every cent spent on arms is a cent not spent on essential public services, where it would truly improve lives, provide genuine security and build sustainable peace. At a time of climate and environmental crises that put the planet and the lives of current and future generations at risk, it is essential to reduce military budgets and use these resources to save people and the planet. Prioritizing war-related expenditures over fundamental societal needs exacerbates suffering, deepens economic insecurity and widens social inequality. Further militarization and military spending increases will necessarily entail more austerity and cuts in essential public services, while fueling repression and the loss of rights and freedoms, both home and abroad. It is also paramount to debunk the myth of the positive impacts that military investments have on national economies. Increasing military spending, in addition to reinforcing a status quo based on violence and injustice, diverts resources from more productive civil sectors, which yield higher benefits, both short and long-term, including job creation.
- We demand an end to this reckless arms race. The world does not need more weapons, but rather more dialogue, cooperation, global democratic institutions, and a commitment to justice and human dignity.
- We urgently call on governments to reduce military spending and instead address through cooperation and diplomacy the global challenges of our time requiring all available resources.
- We call for real efforts aimed at global disarmament, stopping the arms trade and ceasing arms shipments to countries in conflict, involved in regional instability or systematically violating human rights and international law. We call on governments and companies to prioritise peace and justice over profits derived from arms manufacturing and trading.
- We call on governments (especially those of the U.S. and EU countries) to cease supplying arms to and buying arms from Israel, and use all existing means, including by taking sanctions against the Israeli government, to push for a real ceasefire and an end to the genocide in Gaza.
- We call for a sincere and active discussion on new and responsive international and regional security architectures based on the shared ideas of common security, disarmament and global justice. We call on governments to abide by international law and international disarmament treaties, to support the international conflict resolution framework of the United Nations, implement the commitments made in the UN Pact for the Future, and to actively prepare a fourth Special Session on Disarmament in the UNGA.
- We call on governments to address the climate crisis now. Global militaries are responsible for 5.5% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This means that if global militaries were a country, they would be the fourth largest emitter. Increased military spending means increased GHG emissions. If millions of dollars can be made available for buying arms, there is no reason why they should not be available for climate finance to address the biggest challenge ever faced by humanity.
- We call on civil society across local, national, regional, and international levels to join together in the GCOMS campaign to combat the rising trend of military spending, to strengthen the global movement for peace and justice, and to challenge decision-makers who seek to justify a never-ending militarism in the name of security.
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