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.