A Class of their Own: the US and Saudi Overreaching Military Expenditure

In this infographic, we make an analysis of both the World’s and the regional military expenditure between 2011 (the aftermath of the Arab Spring) and 2014 (most recent available data). The main conclusions are that MENA —along with East Asia— is one of the most militarized regions in the world, proving its position as a global hotspot. By far, the US tops the ranking at the global scale (38%), while Saudi Arabia accounts for a similar expenditure (40%) among the MENA countries, and ranks among the five biggest spenders of the world, along with France, Russia, China and the US. By comparison, other non-Arab powers, such as Turkey and Israel, have maintained a rather stable military expenditure, while Iran has even decreased it.