Reducing Military Spending in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is one of the largest military spenders across the globe at a time when worldwide military spending has continued to stabilize. Based on recent statistics, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia spends a quarter of its national budget (25%) on its military. The high military expenditure in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has become a major issue of concern given that it’s twice as much as expenditures on health and social development. The increased spending on military is attributable to Saudi Arabia’s recent engagement in a war in Yemen and joining forces with Turkey against President Bashar Assad of Syria (Moshinsky & Martin, 2016). Additionally, the huge expenditures on the military are geared towards enhancing artillery and capacities of the kingdom’s forces. While enhancing military capacity and artillery is not a bad thing, the huge military expenditures raises huge concerns since they are carried out at the expense of other important aspects of governance such as health and social development. Reducing military spending in Saudi Arabia requires lessening arms imports through restructuring its military contracts while promoting the growth of the local artillery industry.

Saudi Arabia’s Military Spending
As previously mentioned, Saudi Arabia is currently one of the largest military spenders worldwide through global spending on the military has continued to plateau in the past few years. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia recently increased its spending on the military by 6.7% on the national budget i.e. $50.8 billion. According to Moshinsky & Martin (2016), it is estimated that Saudi Arabia currently spends 25% of its national budget on the military, which is twice as much as what is spent on health and social development. The huge expenditure on the military is estimated to be 13% of Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Saudi Arabia’s increased expenditure on its military can be traced back to 2002 when military spending started to account for a significant portion of its national budget. Since 2002, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has increased its military spending annually though its military expenditure in 2016 represented a 30% decrease from the previous year (Tian et al, 2017). The increased military spending by Saudi Arabia since 2002 is attributable to various factors including the high military burden in the Middle East. The Middle East has been characterized by increased security concerns in the past few decades. The increase in these security concerns has contributed to high military burden in the region, which has in turn fueled increased military expenditure by Middle East nations, particularly Saudi Arabia.
Apart from the high military burden in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia’s increased military spending has also been fueled by its recent engagements in war. The country recently increased its national budget for military spending in 2017 by 6.7% because of its war with Yemen. While the kingdom’s military spending in 2016 was initially projected at 179 billion riyals, the country ended up spending more at approximately 205.1 billion (Reuters, 2016). This huge expenditure was not only because of its war with Yemen, but was also fueled by its decision to join forces with Turkey in fighting Syrian President, Bashar Assad. Therefore, recent engagements in war have provided a strong justification for Saudi Arabia’s increased military spending.
The other factor that has contributed to the country’s increased military spending in recent years is its competition for regional influence with Iran, which is one of its major arch-rivals in the Middle East region. In light of the volatile security situation that has characterized the Middle East in recent decades, countries in this region have enhanced their competition with each other for regional influence. For Saudi Arabia, Iran has become a major arch-rival that is fighting to exert regional influence. The competition for regional influence with Iran has necessitated increased military expenditure by Saudi Arabia.
The Case for Reducing Military Spending in Saudi Arabia
Even though the previously mentioned factors provide a solid justification for Saudi Arabia’s huge military spending, the kingdom needs to examine loopholes that can be sealed to prevent and/or lessen the expenditures. In this regard, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is facing the need to lessen its military spending without compromising the capacity and artillery of its forces. This implies that there are measures that Saudi Arabia can undertake to lessen expenditures on the military while strengthening its forces, particularly because of the relatively volatile security situation in the Middle East region.
The case for reducing military spending in Saudi Arabia is supported by the fact that the current huge expenditures are undertaken at the expense of other important national development issues. Moshinsky & Martin (2016) contend that current military spending in Saudi Arabia is twice as much as expenditures on health and social development. This essentially means that the kingdom’s increased spending on the military could have devastating impacts on its health and social development. Additionally, the case of lessening military spending in Saudi Arabia is also supported by the fact that there are various loopholes that exist in its current military expenditure framework. These loopholes play a crucial role in the huge expenses on the military, which account for a significant portion of the national budget. Therefore, addressing these loopholes could help in reducing military spending in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Ways of Lessening Military Spending in Saudi Arabia
As previously mentioned, there are various measures that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can undertake to lessen its military spending. Even & Guzansky (2016) state that one of the major ways for Saudi Arabia to reduce spending on its military is through is to lessen arms imports. Based on its recently release ambitious economic plan, Saudi Arabia plans to lessen it military spending through curtailing arms imports (Even & Guzansky, 2016). Increased arms import is regarded as one of the major factors that have contributed to Saudi Arabia’s huge military spending. Throughout the years, arms imports have accounted for a significant portion of the country’s military budget. The country has continually imported weapons and artillery from other developed countries, particularly the United States to help strengthen its military capacity a region that is characterized by increased security concerns. While the country is expected to continue importing billions of dollars worth of weapons from Western suppliers like France, Britain and the United States in the near future, lessening arms import is a crucial way towards reducing its overall military spending (Reuters, 2016).
Arms import has played a major role in Saudi Arabia’s increased military spending in the past decade since these imports have increased by 275% between 2011 and 2015 (Norton-Taylor, 2016). This implies that a significant portion of military spending in Saudi Arabia in the past few years has gone to arms import. Most of these imports have come from the United States and Britain, which are regarded as the nation’s largest suppliers of military artillery. Due to increased arms imports, Saudi Arabia is currently the second largest importer of weapons across the globe after India. Therefore, lessening these imports would help the country to cut down on its military spending.
Cutting down on arms imports should be accompanied by increasing local production of weapons/arms. Currently, Saudi Arabia’s proportion of arms purchases from the local industry accounts for only 2% of its overall expenditures on arms purchases. This implies that 98% of the kingdom’s arms purchases are spent on foreign entities and governments. Based on the ambitious economic plan that was recently released, Saudi Arabia’s long term target of arms purchases is 50% local production. An increase in local production would significantly lessen military expenditure through reducing the amount transferred to international governments for weapons. Moreover, increased local production and arms purchases would imply that a significant portion of Saudi Arabia’s national budget is spent locally, which will in turn boost the economic while promoting the growth of other sectors.
One of the measures for ensuring more local production to replace arms imports will be realized through establishment of a government holding company for the military industry (Even & Guzansky, 2016). Secondly, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defense and other relevant military agencies should ensure that they only place contracts with international suppliers that are linked to the local military industry. This will provide a suitable framework for restructuring the nation’s military contracts and ensuring they are linked to the local military industry. These processes will in turn provide a foundation for Saudi Arabia to satisfy its demands for weapons/arms locally. The local purchases of weapons would in turn contribute to reduction in military spending in Saudi Arabia since the country will not incur additional costs associated with importation of arms.
In conclusion, Saudi Arabia is one of the largest military spenders across the globe and has increased its military expenditure annually since 2002. This increased expenditure is attributable to the high military burden in the Middle East region, recent engagement in war with Yemen and joining forces with Turkey in the Syrian conflict, and competition for regional influence with Iran. Even though there is a strong case for high military spending in Saudi Arabia, there are some loopholes that can be addressed to help reduce these expenditures. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia should lessen its military spending to help increase expenditures in other sectors of the economy such as health and social development. Reducing military spending in Saudi Arabia requires lessening arms imports through restructuring its military contracts while promoting the growth of the local artillery industry. These measures would enable the kingdom to reduce its military spending while maintaining its capacity and military strength. Additionally, they will help reduce military spending by ensuring the country avoid additional costs associated with importing arms/weapons and ensuring that a significant portion of arms’ expenditures is spent locally.


References
Even, S. & Guzansky, Y. (2016, May 6). Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030: Reducing the Dependency on Oil. Retrieved October 23, 2017, from http://www.inss.org.il/publication/saudi-arabias-vision-2030-reducing-the-dependency-on-oil/
Moshinsky, B. & Martin, W. (2016, February 19). Saudi Arabia Spends £56 Billion a Year on its Insane Military – Here’s What that Kind of Money Buys. Business Insider. Retrieved October 23, 2017, from http://uk.businessinsider.com/saudi-arabia-spends-80-billion-on-its-military-2016-2?IR=T
Norton-Taylor, R. (2016, February 22). Saudi Arabia Leads Surge in Arms Imports by Middle East States. The Guardian. Retrieved October 23, 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/22/saudi-arabia-surge-arms-imports-middle-east
Reuters. (2016, December 22). Saudi Arabia to Raise Military Spending 6 pct – Budget. Reuters. Retrieved October 23, 2017, from https://www.reuters.com/article/saudi-economy-budget-military/saudi-arabia-to-raise-military-spending-6-pct-budget-idUSL5N1EH3CU
Tian et al. (2017, April). Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2016. Retrieved October 23, 2017, from https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/Trends-world-military-expenditure-2016.pdf