According to the U.S. State Government 2013-2015 Foreign Assistance report, an estimated $5.9 billion was spent on foreign military funding alone in fiscal year 2014. This is equivalent to 17% of the estimated $35 billion spent on total global aid discussed in our previous article. U.S. foreign military aid to countries ranged from $200,000 to $3.1 billion. Of the top 10 recipients, two countries received 75% of the $5.9 billion. Take a look on the map below to see who is getting the most foreign military financing from the U.S.
Below is a ranking of the the top 10 recipients and their respective world regions.
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Israel: $3.1B (Middle East)
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Egypt: $1.3B (Africa)
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Iraq: $300M (Middle East)
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Jordan: $300M (Middle East)
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Pakistan: $280M (Asia)
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Lebanon: $75M (Middle East)
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Philippines: $50M (Asia)
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Colombia: $29M (Latin America)
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Tunisia: $20M (Africa)
Research conducted by the World Bank shows that the on average, countries spend approximately 2.2% of GDP on the military. Israel, Iraq, Jordan and Pakistan allocated above average spending towards their military in 2014. The data shows that each country spent approximately 5.2%, 4.3%, 3.5%, and 3.4% of GDP, respectively, on military expenditures. These countries are also part of the top 5 recipients of U.S. foreign military financing, totaling $4.0 billion.
Funding by World Region
Approached from a different perspective, approximately 87% of the $5.9 billion was distributed among two of five world regions. The Middle East tops this list, followed by Africa.
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Middle East: 64%
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Africa: 23%
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Asia: 7%
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General Programs: 4%
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Europe: 1%
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Latin America: 1%
An interesting point to note is that while the Latin American region received only 1% of foreign military financing, Colombia made the top 10 list with $28 million. The second highest recipient in Latin America was Mexico, with $7 million of U.S. funding. On the other hand, Africa received roughly 23% of military aid; however, five African countries made the bottom of the list, receiving $200,000 each (Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Botswana, Tanzania, and Uganda). Of the 74 countries that received U.S. foreign military funding, not all received aid in proportion to its geographic region.
Past, Present, and Future
Allocation of foreign military financing may differ over time as the social, economic, and political climate changes across the globe. In the past three years; however, foreign military financing has been relatively consistent, with $5.7 and $5.9 billion distributed in 2013 and 2014, respectively, and $5.6 billion requested in 2015. Additionally, Israel, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Pakistan made the top 5 in all three years, receiving roughly the same amount of aid year over year. It is difficult to predict future foreign military financing allocations; however, if remaining consistent, five countries will receive approximately 89% of these distributions, leaving 69 other countries to receive the remaining 11% of funds
The U.S Spends $5.9B on Foreign Military Financing #israel #dataviz https://t.co/OX3OhuhmuM pic.twitter.com/GQqwJplos5
— How Much (@howmuch_net) November 13, 2015
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Sources: Table 1