Military Budget, War Against Boko Haram Insurgency, and Its Impact on Nigerian Politics and Economy

This chapter examines the relationship between the components of defense spending, the fight against insurgency in Nigeria, particularly Boko Haram in the Northeast, and its impact on the politics and economics of the country for the period 2009-2017. The long duration of military rule in Nigeria contributed significantly to under-developing the military, a strategy by the military men in power to secure their hold on power. Added to this was the general poor performance of the military administrations in Nigeria that suppressed civil society in the country. Consequently, the widening of political space when the country transited to democracy in 1999 opened up the space for bottled-up agitations that gave rise to ethnic and religious sect militias propagating diverse agendas. One of such is the Boko Haram which waged an insurgency against Nigeria in the northeast region of the country. To tackle the challenge, the budget for the military was increased. The chapter also discusses the military budget as a result of the counter insurgency, its management in the prosecution of the war against Boko Haram, and its impact on the Nigerian economy.

Defense-Education Expenditure Nexus in Economic Growth of Nigeria

As defense expenditure in Nigeria has become considerably high, the concern is whether the burden of such expenditure might adversely influence economic growth through its ability to reduce expenditure on education, which is a key sector that accentuates economic growth. This chapter, therefore, analyzes the deleterious effects of defense expenditure on education expenditure in relation to economic growth of Nigeria. The estimated model finds that defense expenditure exerts negative effect on education expenditure. This implies that reducing defense expenditure would not only be good for economic growth but also directly contribute resources into the education sector of the Nigerian economy. The authors also observe the need to reduce expenditure on defense for the development of other social sectors.

FDI Inflows and Military Expenditure

This chapter attempts to investigate the effect of military expenditure on FDI inflows in the 15 emerging market economies over the year 2002 to 2015. Military expenditure takes away scarce public resources, which could have been used for the development of crucial physical and social infrastructure leads to have a negative impact on FDI inflows. The authors have followed both the static and dynamic panel data methodology along with other relevant macroeconomic variables for this exercise. They have found from their analysis that military expenditure is statistically significant on FDI inflows in emerging economies over the year 2002 to 2015. The authors have also examined the relationship between military spending and FDI inflows in the context of economic growth across the emerging economies during the period 2002 to 2014. It has also been found that the military expenditure has a significant impact on FDI inflows in special reference to BRICS countries.

The Impact of Military Spending on Economic Development

Some countries spend a relatively large percentage of GDP on their militaries in order to preserve or secure their status as global powers. Others do so because they are ruled by military governments or aggressive regimes that pose a military threat to their neighbors or their own populations. It is debatable whether there is a causal relationship between military spending and economic growth in the economy. It is again a policy debate how much to allocate funds for civilian and how much for military expenditure. Under these puzzling results of the impact of military expenditure on economic growth which is frequently found to be non-significant or negative, yet most countries spend a large fraction of their GDP on defense and the military. The chapter tries to investigate the relationship between military spending and economic growth in India. It also sees whether external threats, corruption, and other relevant controls have any causal effect. This chapter obtains that additional expenditure on Indian military in the presence of additional threat is significantly detrimental to growth implying that India cannot afford to fight or demonstrate power at the cost of its development.

Impact of Military Expenditure on Domestic Economy

Military expenditure in the recent past has been escalated noticeably owing to the nuclear testing and arms race between India and Pakistan and has the prudent prospect of further boost up in the coming years. In this chapter, India's military expenditure has been modelled in a computable general equilibrium framework in order to analyze its impacts over the macro economy. Alternative policy option has been suggested to fiance it and to reduce the social cost of the higher defense expenditure.

Integrated Fuzzy AHP-TOPSIS Model for Optimization of National Defense Management Based on Inclusive Growth Drivers Using SWOT Analysis

National defense management, based on inclusive growth drivers, is a multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem, which is affected by several conflicting factors like socio-economic dimension and security expenditure. The defense expenditure in its pursuit of closer ties with the regional development has sought to turn structural weaknesses into added value and has attempted to develop a distinctive, nonthreatening profile building around the lack of a political baggage and geopolitical ambitions. In this chapter, SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats)-based fuzzy AHP-TOPSIS model is proposed and is utilized to determine criteria and alternatives. Moreover, fuzzy set theory is employed to deal with the vagueness of human thought. Then, SWOT yardsticks integrated with AHP-TOPSIS calculate the performances of the alternative insights, based on the above-mentioned criteria. The result shows that the most important task of defense authority is to tackle the threats of nation while the “weakness-threat” is the alternative of priority to get the ideal state of defense management.

The Opportunity Costs of Military Expenditure

The defense or military expenditure is a vital necessity to any nation insofar as the roles of internal peace and immunity against foreign aggression in ensuring progress of a nation in all relevant fronts are concerned. In this chapter, it has been observed that the relationship between military expenditure and the growth rate GDP is nonlinear in the sense that at first with increase in the military expenditure the growth rate rises and after reaching the peak it declines with the further increase. There are also significant opportunity costs of military expenditure both in terms of GDP and economic development as a step-up in the military expenditure leads to the decline in the other forms productive expenditures like that in health, education, infrastructure inter-alia. This implies the necessity of military expenditure needs to be lowered which can be made possible by improving international harmony and imparting more bonhomie among the nations particularly amongst those which are close neighbors.

Trend and Impact of Military Expenditure on Economic Growth in South Asia

The objective of the chapter is to analyze trend, pattern, and impact of military expenditure in South Asian countries, namely Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The study is based on secondary data from World Bank database, South Asian report, and RBI macroeconomic indicators. The trend of military expenditure has been analyzed using line graphs for all five South Asian countries. Military spending is higher as percentage of GDP in Pakistan among all South Asian countries. Military expenditure has positive impact on economic growth in South Asian countries. The study suggested effective military expenditure strategies and expenditure which is important for improving economic productivity and growth of countries. There is positive correlation between total military personnel and per capita GDP in all South Asian countries except Pakistan.

Military Expenditures and Income Inequality

Regardless of their level of developments, the income distribution problem is one of the most important economic and social problems the countries face. In recent years, scholars have performed multiple studies to determine the factors affecting income distribution. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the impact of military expenditures on income inequality in a sample of North American countries (the USA, Canada, and Mexico), within the context of the Kuznets curve. The study covers between 1995-2013. In unit root Peseran approach, in cointegration analysis, Durbin-Hausmann approach were employed. The findings show that the coefficient of the military expenditures series is positive and the coefficient of square of the military expenditures is negative. This situation shows that military expenditures first increase and then reduce income inequality. Findings indicate that there is an inverse “U” relationship between military expenditures and income inequality. Moreover, it has been detected that as economic growth increases income inequality decreases.

Women, Armed Conflicts, and Violence

Women, peace, and conflict have remained in focus ever since the end of the Holocaust days. UN Platform for Action 1995 recognized that women are specifically affected by armed conflict because of their unequal status in society and their sex. When the intent is to destroy a culture, women are selectively targeted to symbolize superiority, and induce humiliation in defeated men. Apart from the gender specific effects on women, armed conflicts impose severe strain on economy. It is evident that protecting women during conflict situations therefore makes sound economic sense, apart from the humanitarian obligation that it invites. In this backdrop, this chapter examines the provisions of international humanitarian law and India's domestic legal instruments from the point of view of their brief contents and intents. It sums up the examination of legal framework by advocating social awareness and societal subscription to practice what is preached.