How much does 🇺🇸 spend on defense compared to the rest of 🌏?

That's a hard question to answer. For starters, we don't precisely know how much 🇺🇸 spends on defense (& that's the easy part).

[THREAD]
This thread is inspired by a debate several folks were having recently about comparing US defense spending to that of other countries
So how much does the US spend on defense?

One might think this is simply a budgeting and accounting exercise. That's part of it, but it's actually a conceptual exercise: what do we mean by "defense" or "national security"

jstor.org/stable/2145138…
I like thinking of the "defense budget" as "the money dedicated to fighting wars, preparing for yet more wars, and dealing with the consequences of wars already fought."

This is how it was described by @WilliamHartung & Mandy Smithberger in @thenation

thenation.com/article/archiv…
Given that conception of "national defense", the logical starting point for the US is the @DeptofDefense.

It's budget is reported in what is called the "Green Book"

comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Doc…
The DoD budget has two core parts:

- The Base Budget

- The Overseas Contingency Operations & Supplemental Budget
The "Base Budget" includes pay to personnel and staff, procurement for weapons systems, R&D, facilities maintenance, and a portion for the US nuclear weapons programs (we'll come back to that).
The Overseas Contingency Operations & Supplemental Budget is essentially the "War Operations" budget

This is what covers the costs of war operations IN Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria or anywhere that is classified as an overseas "Global War on Terror" operation
Combined, these make up the bulk of what we call the "defense budget"

In Fiscal Year 2020, that amount came to ~$730 billion.
cnbc.com/2019/12/21/tru…
That's a lot of money -- but that's not everything.

A key part of the US "war capability" are our nuclear weapons. As stated above, those are only partially funded in the defense budget
The other funds for our nuclear stockpile goes to @ENERGY, namely the National Nuclear Security Administration

energy.gov/nnsa/national-…
It's budget is peanuts compared to the overall DoD budget, but it still clocks in at between $15 billion and $20 billion in FY 2020.

So now the total "Defense Budget" is around $750 billion.

armscontrol.org/act/2020-03/ne…
But there is another big expense: pensions and disabilities.

That's not in the defense budget. That's in @DeptVetAffairs.
In FY 2020, the VA budget came to almost $220 billion.

militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-…
The tally:

DoD + VA + NNSA of DOE = ~$970 billion in FY 2020

So we're nearly $1 trillion dollars....and we're still not done!
What about the various intelligence agencies, like the @CIA and @NSAGov?

Does @DHSgov count (which includes the @USCG)?

Or @NASA?

defense.gov/Explore/News/A…
In sum, coming up with a final number for 🇺🇸 defense spending is hard. It's both a conceptual (what is defense?) & budgetary (who gets how much money for what?) challenge.
That's just ONE reason it's difficult to know much the 🇺🇸 spends on defense compared to the rest of 🌏.

I'll go into more reasons in later threads

[END]

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More from @ProfPaulPoast

10 Mar
Why did the US invade Iraq in 2003?

Retaliation for 9/11? A demonstration of US power? Saddam Hussein was a threat? Bush had a personal vendetta to settle? A mistake? All of the above?

The reality is that we don't know.

[THREAD]
This thread is partly motivated by what @_danigilbert recently observed

To start, let's give some background and review the war's lead-up.
Read 53 tweets
6 Mar
The @WhiteHouse released an "Interim National Security Strategic Guidance" this week. After reading it, I'm sure international relations scholars will go.....hmmmmmm 🤔

[THREAD]

whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/…
Don't get me wrong. I agree with @MatthewKroenig that releasing this document is a good thing: folks are anxious to know more about what "America is Back" means. This document offers some...well..."guidance" (hence the name)

And given how early it is being released (for example, 2017 NSS wasn't released until December of Trump's first year) sends a useful signal about intentions

Read 32 tweets
27 Feb
Possible 🇺🇸 arms sales restrictions on 🇸🇦 raises a question: Is there such a thing as a "defensive weapon"? Can some weapons ONLY be used to STOP attacks?

International Relations scholars are (mostly) unanimous: No

[THREAD]
reuters.com/article/usa-sa…
To be clear, it is possible that a weapon will only be USED to stop attacks, not attack others.

After all, that's the heart of "self-defense" clause in Article 51 of the UN Charter

legal.un.org/repertory/art5…
Also, it is possible that a state's military will have a "defensive strategy" -- i.e. non-expansionist -- rather than an "offensive strategy" -- i.e. expansionist.

Indeed, that is a core part of the theory in my book "Arguing About Alliances"
cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/978150174…
Read 25 tweets
24 Feb
What causes civil wars? Are they driven by ethnic differences? By poverty? Something else?

Here is how my Quantitative Security students will explore those questions.

[THREAD]
Unlike the quantitative study of interstate war, civil wars didn't receive big attention until the 1990s. That decade witnessed a spike in the number of internal wars, especially relative to "inter-state wars".

Source: ourworldindata.org/war-and-peace & @UCDP
An important early paper seeking to identify trends in civil wars was by Licklider in @apsrjournal
cambridge.org/core/journals/…
Read 31 tweets
20 Feb
Because it apparently needs to be said: "Imperial Policing" is not a good model for US foreign policy to imitate.

[THREAD]
This thread is prompted, in part, by this statement from Robert Kagan (h/t @mcneillcasey for highlighting it) in a new @ForeignAffairs piece.
Here is the full article
foreignaffairs.com/articles/unite…
Read 27 tweets
13 Feb
After 4 years of Donald Trump, the US must "reassure" its allies.

That's what I'm reading/hearing lately, such as in this @nytimes piece. What do international relations scholars know about reassuring allies? Can it be done? Is it even needed?

[THREAD]

nytimes.com/2021/02/10/wor…
This passage from the article captures well the call for "reassurance": the US must convince its allies in Asia and Europe that the US would indeed use its nukes to protect them.
That's a tall order!

Indeed, such a tall order that it's been a major question explored by international relations scholars for a long time. A LONG TIME.
Read 26 tweets

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