Response to the Stockholm Peace Research Institute 2010 Report

Abstract

This paper seeks to prove empirically and theoretically how military spending represents an externality with respect to growth, as well as the level of impact and productivity that military spending generates with respect to economic growth.

It starts from Paul Samuelson's postulates, and leads to what is called "The efficient frontier", which shows how social spending is affected by defense and security spending, demonstrating how in Colombia this postulate is not fulfilled. To conclude that the defense and security policy is an illusion subject to the conjuncture and the political cycle, and that as long as it is not regulated and isolated from the ups and downs of public opinion, the sustainability of the security and defense policy will be altered, largely due to the lightness with which the analysis of these documents is approached.