former British Secretary of Defense Liam Fox points out that debt is the single greatest security threat facing the Western world.
Against a background of increasing cooperation between Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, the threat to the free world and its values – the rule of law, democracy and human rights – has never been greater in living memory. Yet a much more subtle and sadly self induced crisis corrodes our ability to confront our enemies.
Debt levels in the West, driven up by consumption and welfare that we cannot afford, means that our ability to raise defence and security spending to meet the level of the threat is seriously, if not yet fatally, compromised.
Last year the UK spent £105 billion on debt interest compared to just £65 billion on defending our country. We are not alone. In 2024 the United States spent around $882 billion on interest payments, overtaking the world’s largest defence budget of $874 billion. Recent policy decisions will likely drive the gap higher. This may explain the selective deafness in parts of Washington to the alarm call of the Russian threat. Given the huge potential cost of carrying on a new Cold War alongside Western allies, who for years have talked a great game with minimal action on defence spending, the US seems to have made a historically wrong call for partially understandable reasons.
. . .
The bigger threat ... is to the long-term stability of our financial system whose largest members are either unwilling to live within their means or incapable of it. In the UK, despite having a huge parliamentary majority, the Starmer Labour government has made it clear to international markets that they neither have the ambition nor the ability to reduce welfare spending and that, despite historically high tax levels, the debt will continue to increase. In France, the merest hint of financial restraint brings large sections of the population onto the streets making effective financial rebalancing almost impossible, while in the US President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” is projected to increase the US federal deficit and national debt by around US$3.4 trillion over the 2025 to 2034 period.
The bottom line is clear. Living on the “never never” and pretending we have a right to an unearned standard of living is creating a level of national debt that not only threatens the next generation with a scorched earth economic legacy but is creating a national security emergency. The silent and deadly defence crisis unfolding because of our addiction to debt leaves us in a historically vulnerable position.
There's more at the link.
He makes a very strong case, IMHO. In command economies such as Russia, China, Iran, etc. the authorities can - by force if necessary - divert the resources of the economy to war production, and dragoon young men and women into uniform (shooting those who don't want to cooperate, to "encourage the others", as Voltaire put it). In the free world, we can't. If the public doesn't support the military, resistance would be largely non-viable. If we stripped bare health care, pensions, power generation, food distribution, etc. in order to prioritize military expenditure, our populations would revolt, particularly those who've become dependent on government handouts to survive. Even the prospect, not yet implemented, of military conscription has led to unrest in Germany and other European countries.
We are no longer a disciplined, united society. We are fragmented, divided, opinionated, each faction demanding that its interests be satisfied but no faction willing to subordinate its interests to the more imperative needs that confront us as a nation. That's what's caused our national debt in the first place, catering to special interests and voting blocs. Unless we change our attitudes as citizens and as a nation, nothing's going to change.
There's another question. Given the behavior and attitudes of so many Americans in "blue" states and cities, why should our armed forces die to defend them? They don't deserve it.
Peter
