Abstract
The nuclear stockpile
The United States conducted 18 nuclear tests in 1985, including three Defense Department “effects” tests and one test in conjunction with Britain. The cost in today's dollars was $908 million. This year, the cost of not testing (a.k.a. the “stockpile stewardship program”) is $5 billion.
Source: Stephen I. Schwartz, ed., Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Since 1940 (Brookings Institution Press, 1998), updated by the editor.
Putting missile defense costs in perspective
Sources: Manhattan Project, Atomic Audit; Marshall Plan, State Department Office of Policy and Public Affairs; Apollo space program, House Subcommittee on Manned Space Flight, 1974; missile defense cost estimate 2, Council for a Livable World; missile defense estimate 1, Center for Strategic and International Studies.
How defense budgets stack up
Sources: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments; Center for Defense Information. (All figures for latest year available.)
The war on drugs
Under the 2000-2001 “Plan Colombia,” a program aimed at stamping out that country's cocaine trade, the United States will provide $952 million in military assistance. On the other hand, it could buy Colombia's entire coca crop (as “base”) for about $612 million.
Sources: Center for International Policy (ciponline.org); Global Illicit Drug Trends, 2001, United Nations.
War v. peace
The average cost per U.S. citizen of next year's defense budget, $1,211; the average per citizen cost of international peacekeeping, about $2.27.
Sources: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments; State Department FY 2002 International Affairs Summary; Census Bureau.
Poor us
It takes the Pentagon about 40 seconds to spend the Bulletin's annual budget.
Poor them
The United States plans to increase its defense budget from the originally proposed $310.6 billion in 2001 to $343.2 in 2002. This increase, of nearly $33 billion, is more than the entire gross domestic product of one-third of the nations of the world—70 countries that include Bolivia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, El Salvador, Honduras, Jordan, North Korea, Lebanon, Lithuania—you get the idea.
Source: Council for a Livable World.