Military Expenditure in European/NATO Countries

After the break-up of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, there prevailed a belief that keeping a significant military force will no longer be necessary and that European democratic countries with developed market economy need not fear major armed conflicts anymore. This led to a significant military budget and military investment downsizing known as the Peace Dividend. As a result of the geo-political and socio-economic events in early 1990s there were two opposing views on global security. First one of them was the view of American political scientist Francis Fukuyama who predicted that thanks to the worldwide spread of democracy the mankind will experience so called "End of History" or in other words the end of all international conflicts (Fukuyama, 1992). On the other hand Samuel P. Huntington claimed, in his book Clash of Civilizations that the danger of armed conflicts will be still present and only the cause for war will change from ideology, which was formerly represented by the West and the East, to cultural and religious reasons. According to Huntington the future conflicts will take place on the fault lines among different cultures and religious groups (Huntington, 1996).At present, approximately twenty years after both studies, the development of the international relations and global security favors more the skeptical view of Samuel Huntingto