The Issue of military spending: A theoretical study and an attempt to consider the reality of military spending in Africa

Abstract

This study aims to provide a theoretical analytical framework for military spending that explains why countries increase their military expenditures, as well as addressing the variables of security and development as the most important areas targeted by states and their dialectical relationship to military spending. In an attempt to project this theoretical framework on the African situation, which is witnessing a continuous rise in military expenditures on the grounds of achieving security and eliminating security threats, the study relied on the analytical descriptive approach and the descriptive statistical technique. The results of the study were that the approach proposed by African countries is a military security approachtranslated by the escalating military expenditures, which were at the expense of the economic and developmental security approach, and that the trend of the budgets of African countries toward militarization put the continent in a security impasse in the north and the continuation of military coups and military regimes in the south. One of the most important recommendations put forward by the study is the need for African countries to adopt the approach of human security and good governance, where transparency, integrity, control and the rule of law and justice are highlighted in the distribution of economic resources; In order to eliminate the security threats facing the African continent, which essentially require economic and social solutions; This includes the primacy  of development over armaments and militarization, and the traditional security features that dominate the perceptions of African countries.