| Peace Dividend |
Article Index for Peace |
Website Links For Peace |
Information AboutPeace Dividend |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT PEACE DIVIDEND | |
| political economy | |
| peace | |
| military economics | |
|
While economies do undergo a Recession after the end of a major conflict as the economy is forced to adjust and retool, a "peace dividend" refers to a potential long-term benefit as budgets for defense spending are assumed to be at least partially redirected to social programs and/or economic growth. The existence of a peace dividend in real economies is still debated, but some research points to its realitySanjeev Gupta, Benedict Clements, Rina Bhattacharya, and Shamit Chakravarti, "The Elusive Peace Dividend", http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2002/12/gupta.htm. A political discussion about the peace dividend resulting from the end of the Cold War involves a debate about which countries have actually scaled back military spending and which have not. The scale back in defense spending was mainly noticeable in Western Europe and originally in the Russian Federation . In contrast to this the United States have not done so, as the country has been engaged in several military conflicts since the end of the Cold War , most notably the War On Terror and the War In Iraq , which are both consuming large sums of money. Moreover, investment in possible Missile Defense Systems have cost and will continue to cost large sums. The latest of these Missile Defense Systems involves a plan to station defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic , which according to the US government are mainly aimed at stopping missiles originating in the Middle East , most notably in Iran . However, the Russian administration has voiced significant oppositions to the plan, since it sees the stationing of these weapons as an imbalance in the global power structure and therefore a potential threat to Russia . While European observers have criticized the US for not scaling back its defense spending, US politicians and commentators have accused Europe of Free-riding on their defense budget. "Peace dividend" can also refer to the improved economy in Northern Ireland after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement . NOTES |
|
|