The Russian attack on Ukraine has brought the question of the German Armed Forces' operational capability back into focus. National defense, which seemed to play only a minor role with the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union in 1991, now has gained a...

COVID-19 hat eine globale Wirtschaftskrise ausgelöst. Diese belastet Staatshaushalte und erhöht den politischen Druck auf globale Verteidigungsausgaben. Transnationale Lieferketten, die auf umfangreichen Transportkapazitäten und reibungslosem Warenverkehr beruhen, zeigten in dieser Krise ihre...

Various options are being discussed to increase Germany's defense capabilities. Increasing the size of the Bundeswehr is proving difficult, and compulsory military service hardly seems feasible for economic and socio-political reasons. A European army and technological alternatives such as...

The reduction in defense spending, often referred to as the “peace dividend,” from 2.7 % to 2.8 % of Germany’s GDP in the late 1980s to just 1.2 % of GDP by the end of the 2010s, has led to a near-complete loss of defense capability over more than 30 years. Given the current global...

The essay examines the contribution provided by Piero, Roberto and Leone Strozzi - sons of the wealthy Florentine banker Filippo Strozzi - to the French war effort in the last two decades of the Ital- ian Wars. A contribution based on their military and diplomatic skills and on the availability...

Defense literature is still in need of a theoretical framework in the neoclassical sense, in regard to empirical research on the relationship between defense spending and economic growth. In this respect, Dunne, Smith and Willenbockel (2005), although not without technical problems, represented...

Der Irakkrieg wurde militärisch wesentlich schneller entschieden als von vielen befürchtet. Die gesamtwirtschaftlichen Kosten des Krieges sind dennoch bedeutend. So ist die jährliche Belastung des US-Haushalts durch die Militärausgaben für den Irakkrieg - gemessen am Bruttoinlandsprodukt -...

Europa muss seine Militärausgaben deutlich erhöhen, aber wie? Diese Frage beantworten wir mit einem Blick in die Geschichte. Wie haben Regierungen in der Vergangenheit in ähnlichen Situationen reagiert? Wie wurden Aufrüstung und Kriege typischerweise finanziert - durch Schulden, Steuern oder...

Europe must rapidly increase its military spending, but how? We collect 150 years of data to study what governments in similar situations have done. How were past military buildups financed? What was the relative importance of debt financing, budget cuts, and taxes? Our main finding is that...