Global Campaign on Military Spending

Have you ever thought that the world spends too much on war and militarism?

In both 2013 and 2014, the world’s governments spent over USD 1700 billion on the military sector (Source: SIPRI). This is money that could instead be spent on creating jobs for young people, feeding the hungry, protecting us all from the effects of climate change, tackling pandemics… and much more. International Peace Bureau (IPB) has called for annual reallocations of 10% (as a minimum) from the military budgets of all states for several years; and for a process to be started to reduce arms production as well as the international weapons trade. Millions of people share this point of view but it has yet to become a major political debating point.

We aim to change all that!GCOMS logo

On 10 December 2014, the IPB announced the launch of a permanent, global, year-round campaign to tackle the worldwide issue of excessive military spending: the Global Campaign on Military Spending (GCOMS).

Overall goal of the campaign is to achieve major reallocations of military expenditures (especially in high spending countries) to four main alternative areas, as part of a wider global transformation towards a culture of peace:

  • Peace: disarmament, conflict prevention and resolution, human security;
  • Sustainable development and anti-poverty programmes;
  • Climate change and biodiversity loss – for mitigation and adaptation;
  • Social justice/welfare, human rights, gender equality and green job-creation.

The campaign builds on over a decade of work done by IPB and others around the theme of ‘Disarmament for Sustainable Development.’ It incorporates the Global Day of Action on Military Spending  (GDAMS) – now in its 5th year.

The IPB itself has over 300 member organisations in 70 countries. In addition, there are nearly 100 partner organisations engaged in the annual GDAMS project. All are welcome to join! Just drop us a line at: mailbox@ipb.org

GCOMS is run by a steering group of activists from all over world, and is coordinated by the IPB Secretariat in Geneva. Learn more from the GCOMS Brochure – English | French.