No More Peace Dividend?

If you’re tired of feeling good about the world, you might want to curl up with the 2000 Yearbook of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), due out this fall. Among the disquieting trends it highlights: 1) The number of major armed conflicts is on the rise, up from 19 in 1997 to 27 ...

If you're tired of feeling good about the world, you might want to curl up with the 2000 Yearbook of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), due out this fall. Among the disquieting trends it highlights:

If you’re tired of feeling good about the world, you might want to curl up with the 2000 Yearbook of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), due out this fall. Among the disquieting trends it highlights:

1) The number of major armed conflicts is on the rise, up from 19 in 1997 to 27 in 1999. Most are protracted (17 have been ongoing for eight years or more) or recurrent.

2) Global military spending rose by 2.1 percent in real terms in 1999 to reach $780 billion — the first increase after a steady post–Cold War decline. That total is still one-third less than 10 years ago and represents the equivalent of 2.6 percent of world economic output.

3) The decline in arms production is slowing. The aggregate arms sales of SIPRI’s "top 100" arms producers dropped by only 3 percent from 1995 to 1998, versus a 29 percent drop during the first half of the 1990s.

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