Military capacities and means

Which country spends the most on arms? Which country has the largest army? Which countries does Germany trade military goods with, and in what quantities?

The information portal on "war and peace" provides answers to these and similar questions within the thematic module "military capcities and means" by looking at three specific topics: military resources, militarisation and the weapons trade.

The topic of military resources is divided into three chapters that allow a comparison of figures between different states with respect to their military expenditures, their number of military personnel and their possession of heavy weapons systems. Military expenditures — the money that states spend on their armies to pay soldiers, advertise for new soldiers, to purchase and maintain weapons systems and military equipment — are generally accounted for in the military budget. Since 2001, worldwide military expenditures have increased and reached new annual highs.

The topic of militarisation is presented in an index that calculates the level of militarisation on the basis of means and capacities available to a state’s armed forces. The topic of weapons trade shows how militarisation has come about and illustrates this through maps depicting the global arms trade and recipient countries of German arms exports.


Buchhandlungen bangen um die Buchpreisbindung

Data tables

For some select map layers, the information portal ‘War and Peace’ provides the user with all used data sets as tables.

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Magnifying Glass in front of a Boston map

Country portraits

In the country reports, data and information are collected by country and put into tables that are used in the modules as a basis for maps and illustrations.

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Compass with Mirror

Navigation and operation

The information and data of each module are primarily made available as selectable map layers and are complemented by texts and graphs. The map layers can be found on the right hand side and are listed according to themes and sub-themes.

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