Military expenditure and human security : a study of East Africa

Abstract

The human security school within neoliberal theory argues that Sub-Saharan Africa’s low human security levels can be attributed to high military spending. As a result, states in the region are urged to reduce their military expenditure further to improve their people's human security conditions significantly. Reduction in military spending, however, is supported without careful consideration for the dire national security needs of these states resulting from unstable politico-economic environments. This study sought a more nuanced understanding of the trends in military expenditure and human security in East Africa from 2010-2017 and the nature of the relationship between the two aspects. East Africa remains a politically volatile sub-region and, therefore, a relevant region to examine these trends. To achieve its objectives, the study applied a mixed-method research design through quantitative data analysis and in-depth interviews with expert practitioners in the human security arena. This enabled the researcher to account for the sub-region's significant security threats. The researcher applied a human security lens within neoliberal international relations theory, which counters the traditional realist theory that emphasises the primacy of national security issues. The study findings reinforced the utility of non-traditional security aspects while highlighting the enduring relevance of national security issues. The study found that by excluding states undergoing intense and protracted violent conflict from the analysis of military spending, a net reduction in military expenditure was observed across the sub-region over the study period. This finding indicates that high military expenditure levels are driven by heightened insecurity across East Africa and reveals that the inclusion of states facing high levels of armed conflict in assessments of the relationship between military expenditure and human security misrepresents the African reality and leads to recommendations that have limited policy relevance in a highly fragile and diverse political environment. Study results also demonstrated that in the East African context, reduction in military spending does not always improve human security for people in the sub-region. The study recommends that the approach to assessing military expenditure should be revised, urges for investment in sub-regional common defence systems as a precondition to reducing defence spending and calls for improvement in the capacity of states to collect data on a broad range of human security indicators, including in critical areas such as education.