Defense Spending in Germany: High Peace Dividend and Missed NATO Quota

The conflict potential presented by authoritarian governments in and near Europe poses new challenges to which German security policy must respond with appropriate budgets. So far, new demands on the armed forces in an international context have not led to a noticeable increase in German defence spending, which has, on the contrary, fallen significantly since the end of the Cold War. Since the Iron Curtain fell, Germany has achieved much higher and more lasting savings than either France or the United Kingdom and has thus enjoyed by far the greatest peace dividend. Moreover, in the next few years, Germany is likely to continue to miss the NATO target for defence expenditure of 2 per cent of gross domestic product by a wide margin. If it were to be met, Germany’s defence budget for the period between 2021 and 2024 would have to be boosted by an overall 86 billion euros.