The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons stated on Monday that despite the pandemic and the destruction it brought to economies worldwide, nuclear-armed countries increased their spending on nuclear arsenals by $1.4 billion last year. The campaign detailed in a new report how the nine nuclear-armed nations continued to raise their spending on these weapons in 2020.
The report noted, "While hospital beds were filled with patients, and doctors and nurses worked around the clock with basic medical supplies running low, nine countries found that they had more than $72 billion to spend on their weapons of mass destruction." This spending represents an increase of $1.4 billion (1.2 billion euros) compared to 2019, according to the campaign, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017.
The United States spent $37.4 billion in this area, accounting for more than half of the total amount, which is about 5% of its total military spending last year, according to the report. The report estimates that China spent around $10 billion and Russia $8 billion.
Collectively, nuclear-armed countries, which also include the UK, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, and North Korea, spent over $137,000 every minute on nuclear weapons in 2020. The increase in spending was recorded not only during a time when the world was struggling with the worst pandemic in a century but also while many other countries came together to advocate for a ban on nuclear weapons.
Last October, a treaty proposed by the campaign to abolish nuclear weapons received the ratification of the 50th state, allowing it to come into force in January 2021. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons stated in its report, "While these nine countries continued to waste billions on weapons of mass destruction, the rest of the world was busy making them illegal."
The report, titled "Complicity: Global Nuclear Spending 2020," highlighted how governments are increasingly directing tax dollars to weapon contractors, who in turn are spending increased amounts on lobbying to encourage expenditure. It noted that more than 20 nuclear weapons manufacturers benefited from this spending last year through existing or new contracts, with 11 Western companies alone receiving $27.7 billion through contracts for new or modified nuclear weapons.
The largest companies benefiting from contracts include Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies, and Draper. The report stated that nearly half of U.S. spending last year, or $13.7 billion, went to Northrop Grumman for building a completely new nuclear weapons system. The report added that this company spent $13.3 million to lobby U.S. policymakers to spend more on defense and another $2 million to fund major think tanks conducting research and writing about nuclear weapons.
It noted that the pressures exerted by companies generally paid off well. For every dollar spent last year to lobby governments for increased defense spending, the companies received $236 in nuclear weapons contracts.
