Budget Matters Blog

Category: Military & Security


9/11 at 20: Two Decades of Missed Opportunities

For just a fraction of what we’ve spent on militarization these last 20 years, we could start to make life much better.


A Just Transition For Defense Industries? Lessons from Fossil Fuel Transitions

Plans for a Just Transition away from defense industries do not need to be pulled out of thin air. The ongoing efforts to transition economies, workers, and communities out of the harmful fossil fuel economy provides insights into what works and what doesn’t. 


We've spent billions on war. Now, let's spend to bring Afghans to safety.

In 2020, the Pentagon budgeted $18.6 billion for its Afghanistan operations. That level of investment could pay up-front refugee relocation costs of $15,148 for 1.2 million people.


Rural Towns Deserve Better Than Prison Jobs

Rural prison towns need jobs. There are better ones than guarding people in cages.


To Save the Planet, We Need to Demilitarize the Police

Even with climate disasters all around us, nonviolent environmental demonstrations face fierce police repression. Why?


Dear U.S. Navy: Don't Dump Your Ships in Our Oceans

For the past 40 years, the U.S. military has turned retired and decommissioned military equipment-- such as ships and tanks-- into artificial reefs.


Why Is Biden's Foreign Policy So... Conventional?

America is back—to the same old, same old.


America's Nearly $1.3 Trillion National Security Budget Isn't Making Us Any Safer

Pouring more money into endless wars, nuclear weapons, overseas bases, and boondoggle weapons programs won't protect anyone.


The Military Wasn't a Way Out of Poverty for Me

For me, the military wasn’t a way out of poverty. Instead, militarism is why so many of us are poor in the first place.


Osama's Ghost: The Economics of Overextension

Twenty years of military quagmire of the Middle East has contributed to the fraying of the U.S. economy even as China has rapidly become the new center of global capital accumulation.