Cespic Working Paper 2018/03
Paschalis Arvanitidis, Christos Kollias
Abstract: Military spending as a share of GDP, represents the resources used in the implementation of national defence policy. A convergence in terms of defence burdens would be an indication of a defence policy convergence in terms of inputs. This theme is examined here using SIPRI’s new consistent database that covers both the Cold War era as well as the post-bipolar period. The results reported herein point to a process of convergence only in the post-bipolar period possibly reflecting the emergence of defence policies that share similar characteristics at least in terms of the allocation of resources. However, this convergence pattern seems to be reversing in recent years.
