GCOMS’ book ‘Military Spending and Global Security: Humanitarian and Environmental Perspectives‘ is now available at Routledge.
Routledge has launched today the book “Military Spending and Global Security: Humanitarian and Environmental Perspectives”, edited by GCOMS Coordinator and International Peace Bureau (IPB) vice-president Jordi Calvo Rufanges. The book is part of a joint project of the International Peace Bureau and Centre Delàs of Peace Studies, carried out within the framework of the Global Campaign of Military Spending, which has the support of Barcelona’s City Council.
This publication analyzes the current levels of military expenditure, what do they respond to and what do they entail for global security. Throughout the book various researchers provide a broad and detailed analysis of military expenditure as a key factor of global instability, analyzing its trends and the consequences of its constant increase.
Authors argue that the increasing military spending is not a good response to emergencies that militarization itself has helped create and claim that it is in fact both a cause of and a response to serious challenges facing our society. The book also explains why people are not well-served by States continuously trying to compete with one another in terms of military strength, examines the scope of military expenditure around the world, and explains how militarism is linked to conflict and security threats and how military spending prevents us from adequately dealing with global environmental challenges.
After Tom Woodhouse‘s preface and Jordi Calvo‘s introduction, Aude Fleurant and Yannick Quéau give context to the book’s main topic with their chapter “Trends in global military expenditure: drivers of increases and causes of concerns”; Centre Delàs’ researcher Chloé Meulewaeter then analyzes the relationship between military expenditure, arms transfers and armed conflict, and Alejandro Pozo, also from Centre Delàs, examines “Military spending, foreign military operations and counter-terrorism”; Joseph Gerson then gives a perspective of the world’s biggest spender, the United States, in his chapter “Empire, US military spending and campaigning for a moral budget”; Laëtitia Sédou, Mark Akkerman and Bram Vranken, all members of the European Network Against Arms Trade -ENAAT-, incorporate a European perspective in their chapter “Militarisation of the European Union: fresh money for the military industry”; Tarja Cronberg and Dave Webb analyze the “Costs of nuclear weapons”; Pere Brunet and Chloé Meulewaeter examine the relationship between military spending and climate change; Finally, Colin Archer, former IPB Secretary General, studies the peace movement work in relation to military spending. Conclusions are again written by Jordi Calvo.
This book is a must-read for scholars, researchers and students from a wide range of disciplines as well as for professionals in the third sector and activists working on issues related to peace, security, militarism and social and climate justice.
You can purchase the book at Routledge’s website.
The book will be presented on December 3, at a webinar on Military Spending and Global (In)Security, with Michael Klare, Walden Bello, Tarka Cronberg and Bina Nepram, moderated by Jordi Calvo and Dong Huy Cuong. You can finf more information about this online conference here.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Jordi Calvo Rufanges
1 Trends in global military expenditure: drivers of increases and causes of concerns
Aude-E. Fleurant and Yannick Quéau
2 Military expenditure, arms transfer and armed conflicts
Chloé Meulewaeter
3 Military spending, foreign military operations and counter-terrorism
Alejandro Pozo Marín
4 Empire, US military spending and campaigning for a moral budget
Joseph Gerson
5 Militarisation of the European Union: fresh money for the military industry
Laëtitia Sédou, Mark Akkerman and Bram Vranken
6 Cost of nuclear weapons
Tarja Cronberg and Dave Webb
7 Military spending and climate change
Chloé Meulewaeter and Pere Brunet
8 Peace movement work on military spending
Colin Archer
9 Conclusion
Jordi Calvo Rufanges