The United States, being the most formidable military power, it is worth looking at their spending, compared to the rest of the world. Consider the following:
On the military in general, the USA spends more than the rest of the G7 countries combined.
The U.S. military budget request for Fiscal Year 2003 is $396.1 billion
The U.S. military budget request for Fiscal Year 2002 was $343.2 billion.
The U.S. military budget request for Fiscal Year 2001 was $305 billion And Congress had increased that budget request to $310 billion.
This was up from approximately $288.8 billion, in 2000.
The US military budget is more than six times larger than the Russian budget, the second largest spender.
The US military budget is more than twenty six times as large as the combined spending of the seven "rogue" states (Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria).
It is more than the combined spending of the next twenty five nations.
The United States and its close allies (NATO countries, Australia Japan and South Korea) spend more than the rest of the world combined
-This accounts for two thirds of all military spending.
-Together they spend approximately 40 times more than the seven rogue states.
The seven potential "enemies," Russia and China together spend $117 billion, less than 30% of the U.S. military budget.
Global military spending has declined from $1.2 trillion in 1985 to $809 billion in 1998. During that time the U.S. share of total military spending rose from 31% to 36% in Fiscal Year 1999.
In 1997 alone, half of USA's aid was related to military aid/trade -- and most of that was to countries that are already wealthy, like Israel, or Turkey (which has often been one of the largest recipients of US military aid and has often been criticized for its human rights violations and crackdowns). Compare that to very poor countries like Sub-Saharan African nations that received very little aid.
source:
http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolit...e/Spending.asp
Center for Defense Information