عوائد النفط العربي و الإنفاق العسكري

Abstract EN

This paper attempts to illustrate the relaionship between Arab oil revenues and military expenditure.

In its introduction two important facts are pointed out.

The first is that the average expenditure on defence and security in the Arab world repre-sents approximately 15 % of the over all G N P of the Arab world, and this repre-sents- by world standards-a reasonable percentage despite the enormity of its volume (344.6 billion dollars).

Secondly the average percentage of expenditure on defence and security represents 34.4 % of national expenditure.

However such percentage var-ies considerably from one state to another as a reflection of the degree of political stability in the region (rising to a high of 42 % in 1985).

The largest part of this paper is devoted to expounding two issues: the strategic concept of military expenditure and exploring ways and means of maximizing the re-turns of military expenditure in the Arab states .

The first section includes shedding some light on the Arab- Israeli conflict, the Iraq- Iran configuration, the sectarian confrontations in Lebanon and other peripheral conflicts in the Western Sahara, the Southern Sudan, the African Horn ....etc., which all represent eminent threats to Arab national security, the safeguarding of which the primary objective of military expenditure.

Military expenditure contributes also in a very positive manner to eco-nomic development in general and to both scientific and technological progress.

It also represents an effective mean for minimizing the degree of dependence on the big powers and the emancipation of Arab will.

The second part of this paper deals with the maximization of the returns of mil-itary spending and introduces practical ideas in this respect.