Shatha Khalil *
Since Trump came to power in the United States of America, the outbreak of regional wars and other proxy wars, and the existence of a permanent state of tension in international relations, reflected by the continuing differences in the UN Security Council, which prevents any decisive solutions to the inflamed issues of the world , that situation represents a clear threat to international peace and security, fueling the return of a cold war and a frightening arms race, due to the new American military tendency.
Accordingly, The US Department of Defense announced its budget for fiscal year 2019, which starts on Oct. 1, 2018, which is estimated at $ 717 billion, which is three percent higher than the military budget for 2018 which is about $ 20 billion.
With these financial allocations and its implications , the latest will not only be the implementation of the new US defense strategy, but carries a vow of cold war, the arms race, and the entry of new balances and competition by the world powers – led by the United States, Russia, China, India and the European Union.
The budget is the largest budget in the history of the United States, signed by US President Donald Trump, on August 13, and said: “The budget will provide the American military the firepower they need in any dispute, to achieve a quick and decisive victory,” and the budget pays high attention to the modernization of US military branches, including strategic forces, as well as an increase in personnel, and other preparations.
According to the experts’ expectations, these allocations would foreshadow a major financial deficit. The political debate over the motives of allocating this large budget is divided to two basic views, the view goes to the need of the United States to strengthen its internal national security and thus strengthen the army and its apparatuses and the other goes to the need to face hostile foreign strategies, specifically confronting the allies , Russia and China .
The index of the size of the budget shows a new military shift to a new military arms race of the international powers, although it has not ended, it has only been reduced noting that its size can be read in terms of continuity and support of ongoing armed conflicts, new military interventions and a wider military deployment in the world. The budget is designed to improve the performance of ground , sea and air forces and to develop research in advanced technology , missile defense and space militarization and it was located from the total value of the planned amount ($ 639.1 billion) for the core budget, (8.9) billion dollars for the Ministry of Energy and the necessary expenditures, and (69) billion dollars for any possible overseas military operations as well as the new act will increase the number of US military personnel to approximately 16,000 US troops and an increase of 2.6 percent in the salaries of military personnel.
On the other hand, observers note that the defense budget approved for 2019, so standard that it comes on the share of other important sectors also , such as the welfare and social security, women’s rights, migration and social justice.
Signs of Raising US Budget:
Political analysts differed in explaining the reasons for raising the defense budget to this standard size. There are explanations regarding the American interior and the external environment. We assume that the latter explains the reasons for raising the budget. This is related to the geopolitical competition of the international powers , the Act comes to drive US forces to stay in the position of global leadership, and aims to make Russia and China in the back to catch up, especially as Russia recently announced a set of new military and strategic weapons , super-strength and intelligence , to meet the threat to national security, and the close strategic alliance between the Russia and China in several military, political and economic fields enhances Washington’s adoption of this huge budget, and pushing for a race between the forces, from what we call in the concept of international relations : the security dilemma caused by the increase in military spending of a country that another country sees against it, and the two countries enter in the cycle of action and reaction , Ie armament and counter-armament, which is practically translated into a military race towards armaments.
Russia’s position on raising the US defense budget:
Russia has expressed its concern about the record size of military allocations in the new defense budget, and the official spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova announced , that the new defense budget sets the course of Washington to dominate the world through force, Zakharova added that “Russia from its part takes and will take the necessary measures to ensure its security reliably by all available means, whether political, diplomatic or military. ”
Russia has expressed its resentment and being portrayed as a threat to the United States of America, and even the historic Helsinki summit between Trump and Putin, which is supposed to establish cooperation between them, its outputs have retained the need to confront the Russia’s rise.
The new US defense budget document contains accusations that Russia has violated the medium- and short-range missile destruction treaty and President Trump’s commitment to report on Russia’s implementation of the Medium- and Short-Range Missile Destruction Treaty, the nuclear, and strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and the Open Sky Treaty, which the United States does not intend to implement until it is satisfied that Russia is committed to it.
In addition, the new budget asks the president to report on the administration’s discussion of New Russia’s weapons in its talks with Moscow, including the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (SMART), the nuclear-powered winged missile X-101 and the self- submarine , S-6 and the hypersonic Avangard missile, and Russia’s consideration of the implementation of the Strategic Arms Control Convention (START) in the possession of such weapons.
China’s position on raising the US defense budget:
China has expressed its displeasure with the inclusion of the massive defense budget of 2019, negative items towards Beijing, and put it side by side with Iran and North Korea, as countries that pose a threat to the United States, and this increases the existing tensions because of US tariffs on Chinese imports, and trade war waged by the United States against a number of countries including China, Russia, Germany and Turkey, especially as Washington calls for Taiwan’s help to improve its defenses. Beijing urged Washington to abandon the Cold War mentality, warning that the budget “is touching the trust” between them and “Destroy climate of ” military cooperation between them .
The adopted US law contained China’s classification alongside Iran and North Korea as one of the adversaries, along with Iran and North Korea, including in cyberspace. The law also provides for measures to develop US capabilities to be capable of directing a “quick strike of conventional weapons” in response to the development of Russia, China’s new weapons which are faster than supersonic several times.
For its part, the Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling on the US side to deal objectively with China, China-US relations, strict adherence to the one-China principle and the three Sino-US Communiques , not to implement the negative provisions of the law in practice so as not to harm China-US relations , and the continuation of bilateral cooperation in many important areas.
These rapid developments will prompt States to ascertain their fears about the American orientations in which its movements and orientations are heading towards these countries, and to look at them with the enemy’s eyes. This requires the development of itself militarily as well, and the matter will not stop at this point, but it will be military alliances and balances during the coming periods.
Strategic studies confirm that the calculations of the political, economic, military, and international forces that the United States far outweighs the state of the Russian Federation, but also confirms that Moscow has been able over the past few years to make a lot of progress to compensate a large part of its strategic losses at both Regional and global levels , following the falland demise of the former Soviet Union from world map on 1991, so that it was able to deal fairly and equitably with the United States, despite the apparent differences of power between them.
We conclude from this that the US adoption of a huge defense budget in 2019 reinforces the Trump management approach, which always supports the increase in military spending. The American military team operates with the logic of adopting large defense budgets, leading to larger arms manufacturing, and in its turn to create wars in the countries and to intervene militarily, under the names of human rights protection, and the main objective is to destabilize the international peace and security, which is living in the seven wars that do not end in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen and Somalia, and on the other hand, the arms race between the United States of America and Russia and China , which expressed their concern about this law, which will have negative effects on international security.
Economic Studies Unit
Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies