USA alone accounts for 40% of all global military expenditure, averaging at close to $600 billion spent every year on warfare.
America's dedication to war and conflict spending is 12 times higher than what it spends on 'aid', which totalled less than $50 billion in year 2011.
In fact, the US aid figure includes $18 billion of military aid, which leaves a total of $32 billion in economic aid.
So the actual ratio of military expenditure versus economic aid is close to 20 to 1 ($618 bn. versus $32 bn.).
It is therefore fair to say that the US spends 20 times more on terrorising the world than it does on aid and peacemaking.
A worrying feature of the global military expenditure figures is the fact that average annual spending on war machines and weapons of mass destruction has increased since 1988 and the fall of the Berlin wall.
The global average for the period stands at US$1.4 trillion a year between 1988 and 2012. The average for the period 2000-2009 was slightly higher as the table shows. This is not surprising as 9/11 occurred in this period.
What is rather surprising is a significant rise in the West's military expenditures over the period 2008-2012, which is the period of the Western financial/economic crisis.
Average US military expenditure rose from $560 billion a year before the 'crisis' to $699 billion a year - a rise of 25% in military expenditure at a time when the economy was apparently in some trouble.
This is a clear indicator of the centrality of the war industry to the US economy.
Here one can note a divergence between Europe and the US.
North America and Europe together account for 74% of global military expenditures for a quarter of a century (1988-2012). Europe's share was 31%, but this share has declined to 25% of the total since the 2008 financial crisis.
However, it should be noted that the total amount Europe spends on warfare every year has in fact risen by $26 billion or 7% on average since year 2008 as compared to the average for 2000-2009. It is just their share of global spending that is relatively lower today.
There is a noticeable though slight shift within Europe with a rising share of expenditure by Eastern as compared to Western Europe. Regardless, Western Europe's expenditure on warfare ($308 billion a year) is close to 3 times higher than that of Central and Eastern Europe combined ($115 billion a year).
The European slack has been taken up by East Asia (16% of total since year 2008 as compared to 13% for the period since 1988).
This is not so surprising in that East Asia's economic rise would be expected to show such trends for the period.
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