Security spending across OECD countries has become increasingly one-dimensional. In response to great-power rivalry and acute conflicts – from Ukraine and Gaza to Sudan – governments have sharply expanded military budgets while scaling back the very investments that help prevent crises from emerging in the first place.
Our new report, The Security Paradox, shows that heavily prioritizing defense spending while underfunding development and diplomacy is not only insufficient, but it also actively undermines long-term security.
Using the established 3D framework—Defense, Development, and Diplomacy—this report presents the first harmonized, data-backed comparison of spending across all three pillars for the top 10 OECD defense spenders.
The framework positions defense as protection, ensuring national and collective security through military preparedness; development as prevention, addressing the structural roots of fragility, conflict, and instability; and diplomacy as a multiplier, fostering dialogue, reducing escalation risks, and sustaining institutions that uphold a rules-based international order.
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Read the full report now.
