"Global military expenditure in 2014 was an estimated $1776 billion, repre- senting a marginal fall of about 0.4 per cent in real terms compared to 2013. 1 Total expenditure was equivalent to 2.3 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP). This is the third consecutive year that total global military expenditure has decreased. However, the falls during the previous two years have been comparatively small; world military expenditure is still only 1.7 per cent below its 2011 peak, and it remains signifi cantly above the levels of the late 1980s (see fi gure 1). The pattern of the past few years—whereby military expenditure has fallen in the United States and Western Europe, but increased elsewhere— largely continued in 2014, although spending in Latin America was essen- tially unchanged. Spending in Central Europe broke with recent trends and began to rise again following the large falls in previous years resulting from the global fi nancial crisis that began in 2008. Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East continued to see large increases. Excluding the USA, total military expenditure for the ?rest of the world? has increased continuously since 1998 and was up by 3.1 per cent in 2014..."