Why Nations Arm: A Reconsideration

In a widely, but undeservedly overlooked book, Payne (1989) raised two important issues. First, he argued that many cross-national analyses of military burdens and arms races are misleading, because they rely on expenditure-based measures that are not comparable beyond OECD nations. This contention appears valid. Second, he argued that cultural variables exert a stronger influence on military effort and burdens than external challenges. Here, a reanalysis and reinterpretation of Payne's data rejects this conclusion and asserts instead that the impact of external challenges on the military force ratio is at least as strong as the impact of cultural variables.