Features of the influence of wars and military conflicts on the national economy of the state

Abstract

The ability of the Armed Forces to fulfill the assigned tasks to protect their own state is regulated by a combination of economic, political, scientific, technical and other factors that are closely related. The readiness of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to solve the assigned tasks largely depends on the quantity and quality of resources allocated to meet military needs, therefore, the formation of a military budget is and will always be an important issue of state security. Today, the leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the state in general is faced with the problem of finding a rational balance between defense spending and its economic capabilities. This problem is of particular relevance if the country is a party to a military conflict or is in a state of war with another state. Excessive spending on meeting the needs caused by war or military conflict creates difficult conditions for the development of the stateʼs economy and the threat to its destruction in general.

Today, Ukraine has experienced overt aggression of another state against itself, which led to the temporary occupation of a part of the territory of Ukraine (Autonomous Republic of Crimea), and the incitement of an international armed conflict in its eastern regions, which lasts more than five years [1-4]. Therefore, now, in the modern conditions of Ukraine's development, the issues of finding optimal indicators of providing financial resources for the security forces and state departments that are involved in fulfilling the tasks of its defense are acquiring special relevance. The ongoing military conflict on the territory of Ukraine requires additional financing of military expenditures. Today, some part of the national economy is forced to work to meet military needs, which are constantly fluctuating and have certain risks of their significant increase in the event of an aggravation of the situation in eastern Ukraine. Possible risks form before the state leadership the need to create additional reserve funds in case of an aggravation of the situation in the conflict, which creates an additional burden on the Ukrainian economy. Therefore, in the conditions of the development of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which have taken shape today, the analysis and study of the experience of ensuring the participation of other countries in wars and military conflicts of varying intensity is an urgent topic of the present.

Today, in accordance with the Decree of the President of Ukraine “On the Concept of Development of the Security and Defense Sector of Ukraine” dated March 4, 2016, one of the main directions of its development of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is to improve the budgetary policy in the security and defense sector through the rational distribution of expenditures on development, combat training and operational activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in accordance with the best practices of the NATO member states, as well as the application of a program-targeted approach to determining the amount of financial and material and technical resources required for the effective functioning of the security and defense sector.

Today there are a number of problematic issues that must be resolved as quickly as possible for the effective implementation of the plans for the further development and renewal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. One of these issues is the question of finding the optimal percentage of defense spending from the gross domestic product (GDP) in order to determine the indicators of the sufficiency of their provision and critical levels of tension in the stateʼs economy. The solution to the problem of choosing a rational ratio to meet military needs and an indicator of the tension of the stateʼs economy can be carried out on the basis of the experience of the formation of defense expenditures by countries participating in various wars and conflicts.

The article presents the results of a comparative analysis of the defense expenditures of the countries participating in wars and military conflicts of the period (1940-2018), on the basis of which recommendations for meeting defense needs during the state's participation in a war (military conflict) are formed.