The world has become increasingly more militarized Essay

The world has become increasingly more militarized - Essay Example 32). The ever rising military expenditures on the war against terrorism groups such as Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah has led to many stakeholders such as scholars, economists, diplomats, human rights groups and international organisations to question the rationale, causes, implications and consequences of these expenditures on the world (Ricolfi, 2005, P. 129). Although increased military expenditures on rebel and terror groups has been evident since historical times, the emergence of the current trends of rising military expenditures in anti-terrorism crusades could be traced to the 9/11/2001 terror attacks on the United Stated of America’s Twin Towers. It is after these Al-Qaeda masterminded attacks on the United States that the idea of ‘Global War on Terror (GWOT) became prominent (Wright, 2006, P. 159). Since these and later attacks on U.S interests elsewhere in the world, military expenditures on the war against terrorism have been exponentially increasing (Lustick, 2006, P. 217). The GWOT initiative has been particularly influential in shaping military spending trends, with a reported annual increase of 5% between 2001 and 2006 (Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses, 2008, P. 271). In fact, in the six years preceding the Al-Qaeda masterminded attacks in New York, an annual increase of 0.4% on military spending had been reported with the United States has being identified to account for nearly half the military expenditures against terrorism in the entire world (Sturr, 2006, P. 97). For instance, for the United States along, there was a reported 53% increase in terrorism-related military expenditures in the five years preceding the 9/11 attacks by Al-Qaeda (Ranstorp, 2009, P. 119). In fact, according to the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses, the US Congressional Budget Office (CBO) approximates that based on the size of troops deployed in operational areas, the total cost of GWOT is likely to reach between $1.2 trillion and $1.17 trilli on by 2017 (Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses, 2008, P. 89).This paper thus explores the assertion that the increased military spending on the war against terro