Peace dividend
The political catchphrase peace dividend denotes, on the one hand, the relief of the state budget by reducing armaments and defense expenditure in the course of disarmament agreements after the end of the Cold War; on the other hand, the possible increase in social prosperity that could / can arise through other use of these funds.
Peace dividend in Germany after the fall of the Wall
In the 1970s, the army of the GDR , the NVA , 170,000 men and the Bundeswehr 495,000 men. In accordance with the PSM 2010 personnel structure model , the Bundeswehr in reunified Germany was reduced to a workforce of 250,000 in peacetime by 2010. Accordingly, the Ministry of Defense's expenditure on the entire national budget fell from 20% in what was then West Germany to 10% today.
In real terms, military spending in Germany fell every year for ten years after the fall of the Wall (see chart). In absolute terms, the defense budget has also decreased since the end of the Cold War compared to today.
International
The collapse of the Soviet Union from 1989 initially led to disarmament measures and improved trade relations between the former Soviet states and Western Europe . In Great Britain, for example, not only did absolute expenditure fall, but also the share of military expenditure in gross national product, from 5.3 percent in 1984/85 to 2.9 percent in 1996/97.
A considerable increase in prosperity resulted from the megaton to megawatt disarmament project practiced between 1993 and 2013 . By converting 500 tons of Russian nuclear weapons into electricity, the US covered 10% of its electricity generation for 20 years and Russia received a total of 17 billion US dollars.
Web links
- Michael Dedeck: The Peace Dividend : Disappointed Hopes? in: Wissenschaft & Frieden 1997-2, accessed January 12, 2019
Individual evidence
- ^ Ian Davies: The UK Peace Dividend: Whence it Came, Where it Went. , University of Bradford, Department of Peace Studies, 1996, p.3