Why is the U.S.’s military so high and why is it so hard to bring it down to numbers similar to other counties?
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1) Because it’s not as high as people believe it is. The US is the biggest economy of the world and is spending around 3 and 3.5% of their GDP on their military, while the average is 2.2% world wide. Russia spend 3.9% for comparaison. Don’t get me wrong, the US is spending more than the average country, but we are talking about 60% more in relative term, while most people just look at the total numbers and consider that the US is spending 3 times more than the 2nd (china) or 10 times more than the 3rd (India).
2) The US have more military responsibility than most other countries. The US have a lot of troops in Japan, South Korea and Europe. In Europe, it’s a remnant from the Cold war, but also a strategic position, while in Japan and Korea it’s to counter balance China and protect South Korea. Basically, the US have strategic allies to protect and stationning troops there is important.
3) The US is a superpower and the military is one way to keep that status. By stationning troops and having access to bases around the world, they can act all around the world to impose or push different situation toward an outcome that serve them best and keep their diplomatic power. As a country, you might listen to the oppinion of the US more than a country with no military power outside of their border. The British were important is a lot of international decision worldwide in the past and now the US fill that role.
4) Politically, it’s hard to reduce the military. The US public have a high view of their military and the military standing of the US worldwide. On top of that, reducing military spending mean closing jobs in some states and that is something that might hurt a politician in an election.
The US is the world’s top arms exporter, and having a big military force and destabilizing the world is good for US’ military industrial complex. The top defense companies spread lots of money around to think tanks who are constantly dreaming up new areas of the world that need destabilizing.
What is “high” about the US military? You did not include enough words to clearly communicate what you are asking.
If you are asking why the budget is high? It is not in comparison to other nations. The US spends 3.1% of our GDP on its military. Yes that is more than our treaty obligations of 2% but it is in the same zone (slightly less) than the percentage Russia spends on their military. Russia is still considered our largest rival.
If you are asking about physical size. That is because we are the last remaining Super Power and thus must maintain a military large enough to react globally in case any other nation tries to rise to the level of Super Power, to defend trade lanes int he oceans, and to intervene in foreign wars either when requested or when it is to our interests.
The US has no interest in bringing the size down. In fact, the US often applies political pressure to allies who have reduced their military significantly, in hopes that the US would defend them.
To tack onto what others have said, it is also my understanding that the US military puts a lot of focus on developing new technology so they stay at the top of the world in that sense. And research and development is expensive.
1. The US military prepares for a 2-front war occurring simultaneously – a doctrine officially abandoned 10 years ago but never fully let go in practice. Most other countries only plan for 1 or 0.
2. Politicians are reluctant to close bases in their own jurisdiction.
3. There are enormous profits involved.
The US maintains a significant overseas military presence to support the global hegemony of the United States. The US also takes the primary role in a number of military alliances, including NATO.
ELI5 Version: US politics involves a lot of blowing stuff up around the world, and that requires a big military.
The money doesn’t compare. There was just a r/bestof or r/depthhub about this very exact thing, which I can’t bother to find for you but I’ll just embarrass myself by paraphrasing extremely poorly.
Something like half the defense budget goes to salaries. Compare this to Russia who conscripts their soldiers and pay them dick.
The costs of provisioning isn’t the same, either. We outsource to government contracts to supply our military whereas other countries will use state owned means of production to keep costs down.
In all, if you adjust for these disparities in economies backing these militaries, you’d see we’re kind of competing on a similar level. The Russians develop a new plane, we develop a new plane, they’re very comparable in their role and mission profile, and the economic impact the R&D, maintenance, and operation of that plane has the same *relative* economic impact, even though such a thing would cost billions of dollars here and 7 rubles there.
But don’t forget it is in our economic and political interest to be as involved in global politics as possible. It’s modern imperialism. Instead of ruling them with an iron fist, we do what we can to enable them, to empower them, but to make it seem like life without us supporting them is untenable. When we are asked for help, we need to be able to mobilize and help. That means we need strategic deployments all around the world that can get what we need where we need it in time. And yes, that costs a lot of money. Better us than a political rival. Do you want to be subject to China or Russia having global political sway?
We are still operating under anti-Soviet structure that was set up following WW2. Basically, over the course of the Cold War, the USA bribed other countries to side with them against the Soviets. The bribes were generally structured as follows:
Your country will do the following:
– Generally side with the USA against the USSR
– do not trade or aid the USSR
– Allow the USA to put military bases in your country
– Use the US dollar as the international trade currency
In return, you get the following:
– Help rebuilding your country following WW2
– Favorable access to the US market (the only major economy to survive WW2) to quickly restore your economy
– US military will protect your country for you, so you don’t need a large military
– US navy will patrol the seas to protect international shipping
This system worked and led to the collapse of the USSR in 1991. However, this system didn’t end with the Soviet collapse and has been continued.
Today the question is, how do we transition from this system? Will other countries be willing to up their military spending to offset a reduction in US military? Will China or Russia try to do the same thing, so that they can dominate geopolitics?
People believe that the US maintains an army in case they need to fight a war. This is incorrect.
The US maintains an extremely overpowered army so that NO ONE would even think about starting a fight.
> **why is it so hard to bring it down to numbers similar to other counties?**
1) The US’ national interests are protected by being the “World Police”.
2) Military spending creates A LOT of jobs. Hell most of the equipment made by US factories isn’t used at all, but those are good paying union jobs. Happy well payed workers = happy voters.
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