Two Readings of European Defence Expenditures

Abstract

At the end of 2019, first NATO, then the European Defence Agency published their most current reports on defense expenditure trends. Even though both organisations work with national data provided, and their sampling and analytical methodology, as well as the set of member countries, somewhat differ, thus their nominal results cannot fully coincide, trends in both cases are similar and lead to the same conclusion: European countries have significantly increased their defence spending since 2014. This paper compares the conclusions of the two reports and offers an analysis of the drivers behind the trends.