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The problems of defining, evaluating, measuring, reporting, comparing and verifying military expenditures have attracted a good deal of interest for quite some time. The purposes of dealing with these kinds of questions may, however, be very different. Some may be mainly interested in military expenditures as an instrument for military balance assessments, the results of which might have an impact on the country’s defence policy. Others may want to assess the military expenditures within a group of countries belonging to the same defence organisation in order to arrive at a fair distribution of the social and economic burden imposed by defence obligations. Still others may be interested in military expenditures as an object of disarmament. In this case the main concern may again be to assess a country’s relative military capability by comparing military expenditures in different countries, keeping in mind, of course, that military capability is built up during long periods of time and is affected also by many other factors than those that can be accounted for in monetary terms. Great interest may also be devoted to the linkage between disarmament and development as, for instance, the question of imposing some new kind of tax on military expenditures to be used for the benefit of the developing countries.

One problem in the negotiation and verification of any possible international agreement on the reduction of military expenditure is the difficulty of determining common definitions and methods of evaluation and comparison. Various alternative methods of comparison are discussed and the work of a United Nations group dealing with these matters, including particularly the purchasing power parity method, is reviewed. It is concluded, that, given political will and reasonable availability of adequate and relevant information, the construction of useful instruments for international and chronological comparisons of military expenditure is feasible., Un des problèmes de la négociation et de la vérification d'un éventuel accord international sur la réduction des dépenses militaires est la difficulté de déterminer des définitions et des méthodes d'évaluation et de comparaison communes. Diverses méthodes alternatives de comparaison sont examinées et les travaux d'un groupe des Nations unies chargé de ces questions, notamment la méthode de la parité du pouvoir d'achat, sont passés en revue. Il est conclu que, sous réserve d'une volonté politique et d'une disponibilité raisonnable d'informations adéquates et pertinentes, la construction d'instruments utiles pour les comparaisons internationales et chronologiques des dépenses militaires est possible.

The conventional approach to disarmament is to seek agreements that forbid or limit the development or use of specific weapons like nuclear, biological, chemical or other weapons with particularly harmful effects. Although some such agreements have been concluded, the arms race still continues. Vast human and industrial resources are devoted to the development and deployment of new and ever more sophisticated weaponry. Funds that might have been saved through the prohibition of certain kinds of weapons seem to be poured instead into other military fields. Such practices may change the course of armament but do not lead to any genuine disarmament that would reduce the threat to mankind and alleviate the economic burden for many countries by releasing real resources for civilian uses.