The Impact of Public Budget Distortion on the Defence Capabilities of the New European Nato Member States
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2022 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | International conference KNOWLEDGE-BASED ORGANIZATION |
| Citation | |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/kbo-2022-0045 |
| Keywords | defense capability; free-riding; economic crisis; investment |
| Description | Armies' capabilities are determined by their endowments of resources. The economic crisis that began in 2008 has distorted public budgets, which forced states to start cost-cutting policies. If we focus on the policy of new NATO member states, we can observe that public expenditure cuts affect defense budgets in different states in various ways. If we compare the defense capabilities of countries at the beginning of the economic crisis and ten years after the outbreak of the crisis, the reduction in defense spending is reflected in the loss of some defense capabilities due to the limited possibilities of maintaining and modernizing existing military equipment. Countries that have reduced their defense spending over the long term show a more significant loss of defense capability than countries that reduced their defense spending only in the period immediately after the economic crisis. The different approach to defense spending confirms the previously described phenomenon of free-riding by some NATO member states, which rely on the defense capabilities of their alliance partners while they are slowly losing their defense capabilities. |