{"id":257,"date":"2012-07-20T06:00:12","date_gmt":"2012-07-19T20:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=257"},"modified":"2012-08-09T10:17:35","modified_gmt":"2012-08-09T00:17:35","slug":"graph-of-the-week-in-defence-of-defence-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/graph-of-the-week-in-defence-of-defence-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Graph of the week: In defence of defence cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"
If, as the saying has it, the exchange rate between words and pictures really is 1000 to 1, that\u2019s too good a deal to pass up. Each week The Strategist<\/em> will bring you some graphs that tell a story of their own. The first one:<\/p>\n <\/strong>Given the outcry at the news that this year\u2019s defence budget was the lowest proportion of GDP since 1938, you\u2019d be forgiven for thinking that Australia was wide open to military exploitation.<\/p>\n In the interest of perspective, here\u2019s a graph (click to enlarge) that shows Australia\u2019s spending on defence compared to the five biggest spending ASEAN countries (Source: DIO Defence economic trends in the Asia-Pacific 2011<\/em>). Australia is spending nearly as much as the five put together\u2014and has been doing so for over a decade. That buys a lot of extra military capability.<\/p>\nIn defence of defence cuts<\/strong><\/h3>\n