August 1, 1990

The MCC U.S. Peace Section Washington Office is proposing that in light of present world opportunities, the United States significantly cut its military budget. At an April 1990 meeting, the Peace Section made the following affirmation for such a proposal:

We affirm the Washington Office for the work they have done in developing a proposal to cut the military budget by at least 50 percent in the next three years, while at the same time we expect our government to be reasonable with other defense expenditures. We agree that changes in East-West relations have brought us to an historic opportunity to speak to our government. Furthermore, we see that a call for redirecting funds is in keeping with our concern for stronger domestic programs to relieve human need, the costs for economic conversion from military production, and a reduction of Third World debt in countries where poverty is most extreme.

The Peace Section is to be commended for making such a timely proposal. Even before the recent dramatic improvement in East-West relations, global leaders have been rethinking the role of the military in a nation's security. For example, Ruth Leger Sivard wrote in the 1987-88 edition of World Military and Social Expenditures:

It is difficult to find among today's pressing issues any that lend themselves to military solutions. In this sense military power seems to be irrelevant to national and global security. Behind a facade of "defense," the arms race in its extravagant technological triumphs, has become a serious threat to civilization's survival.

National security is an emotional priority for most people. Personal security is perceived to be linked closely to national security. Since World War II, national security has been defined more and more by military establishments everywhere.

"In this approach to security," says a writer in the Global Ecology Handbook (Beacon Press 1990), "the resources allocated to military institutions have expanded dramatically, diverting money, materials and personnel away from other priorities. Indeed, military spending has grown so much that it has become a detriment to achieving true national security. In many cases, military spending in the pursuit of unilateral military advantage has resulted in greater overall insecurity."

It is clear that military spending has risen dramatically in recent years, both in the United States and globally. The world now spends almost one trillion dollars annually to support military activities.

In one recent year, military spending was greater than the total income of the poorest half of humanity and equivalent to almost $1000 for each of the world's one billion poorest people, according to the World Commission on Environment and Development's report Our Common Future (1987).

The United States and the U.S.S.R. have been responsible for about two-thirds of the world's military expenditures. With the improved relations between the two superpowers and the rediscovery that military action does in no way improve national security, it is reasonable that military expenditures around the world be cut drastically. In my view, they could be cut by more than 50 percent. The peace dividend from such action can be used for many domestic improvements such as health, education and environmental enhancement.

According to World Bank president Barber Conable, low income countries spend $200 billion a year on their military establishments, or more than on health and education combined. They spend $42 per person on the military and only $28 on education and $11 for health, according to Sivard.

It is past time that all leaders of the world recognize that true national security is not found in military establishments. In Common Future is this paragraph:

The whole notion of security as traditionally understood -- in terms of political and military threats to national sovereignty -- must be expanded to include the growing impacts of environmental stress, locally, nationally, regionally and globally. There are no military solutions to environmental insecurity.

Now is the time for the U.S. and all the countries of the world to slash military budgets to make sustainable development possible. The United States must take leadership in this effort. Christians can significantly influence our government leaders to see that this happens. The MCC U.S. Peace Section Washington Office proposal provides some guidance to begin this effort.