The Business of War and the Mismeasurement of Military Might

The Business of War and the Mismeasurement of Military Might
Fix, Blair. (2026). Economics from the Top Down. 22 May. pp. 1-34. (Article - Magazine; English).

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https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2026/05/22/the-business-of-war-and-the-mismeasurement-of-military-might/

Abstract or Brief Description

According to US warmongers, the American military is the most powerful fighting force that has ever existed — a war machine so vast and terrible that enemies everywhere tremble in its path. Boasts aside, the US military is surely unrivalled in at least one regard. It is by far the most expensive armed force on the planet.

In 2025, the US government funnelled $842 billion through Pentagon coffers. And if Donald Trump gets his way, that figure will rise to $1.5 trillion in 2027. No matter how you slice it, that’s a staggering pile of cash. But what exactly does this money buy?

A recent New York Times piece complains that the Pentagon’s enormous budget seems to buy “inertia and incompetence”. And they have a point. Since external audits began in 2017, the Pentagon has notoriously failed every single one. Then again, charges of ‘incompetence’ assume that the purpose of the Pentagon is to spend money wisely — to maximize the war-making return on investment. But what if the Pentagon’s purpose is something different?

In 2015, Senator John McCain made the case for sanctions against Russia by dismissing the state as “a gas station masquerading as a country”. Turning closer to home, I think we can say something similar about the Pentagon; it’s a bureaucratic regime for channelling public funds into private coffers — a money funnel masquerading as a military. Of course, that’s not to say that the US military has no firepower. (It does.) My point is that it’s foolish to use Pentagon spending to judge US military might.

For an illustration of this foolishness, look to the ongoing debacle in Iran. Although the Pentagon outspends the Iranian military by more than two orders of magnitude, the US military has been unable to accomplish any of Trump’s (quixotic) objectives.1 Is this strategic defeat simply a matter of Iranian good luck combined with US poor planning?

I doubt it.

What seems more likely is that the US humiliation demonstrates that Pentagon spending is a misleading measure of US military power. The reason is simple: based on spending alone, we cannot differentiate between a military that’s expensive because it is powerful, versus a military that’s expensive because it (and its coterie of contractors) is well paid.

In this essay, I examine the problem of measuring military power. Along the way, I review the long-term history of US military spending, I analyze the rise and fall of US military hegemony, and I discuss how the ‘war on terror’ has foreshadowed US imperial weakness. Finally, I quantify the US military’s transformation from a war-making machine into a money funnel for US business. All told, the evidence suggests that Pentagon spending vastly overstates US military power.

Language

English

Publication Type

Article - Magazine

Keywords

business hegemony imperialism military power industry military spending United States

Subject

BN International & Global
BN Power
BN Policy
BN Production
BN Region - North America
BN State & Government
BN War & Peace
BN Business Enterprise
BN Capital & Accumulation
BN Comparative
BN Conflict & Violence
BN Crisis
BN Distribution
BN Hegemony
BN Industrial Organization
BN Institutions

Depositing User

Jonathan Nitzan

Date Deposited

22 May 2026 21:51

Last Modified

22 May 2026 21:51

URL:

https://bnarchives.net/id/eprint/890

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