"The World is Over-Armed and Peace is Under-Funded"

Opinion piece by UN Secretary-General BAN Ki-moon
August 30, 2012

"Last year, global military spending reportedly exceeded $1.7 trillion - more than $4.6 billion a day, which alone is almost twice the UN's budget for an entire year.  This largesse includes billions more for modernizing nuclear arsenals decades into the future.

This level of military spending is hard to explain in a post-Cold War world and amidst a global financial crisis.  Economists would call this an "opportunity cost".  I call it human opportunities lost.  Nuclear weapons budgets are especially ripe for deep cuts.

Such weapons are useles against todays threats to international peace and security.  Their very existence is de-stabilizing: the more they are touted as indespensable, the greater is the incentive for their proliferation.  Additional risks arise from  accidents and the health and environmental effects of maintaining and developing such weapons."

BAN Ki-moon,
UN Secretary-General

For the complete article, please visit the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs.