Most if not all countries in Southeast Asia have continued to increase their defence expenditures since the end of the Cold War. However, the literature in this area is still lacking and another similar study merely focuses on countries in the Middle East and the Far East. This study aims: (1) To analyse the trends in defence expenditures of selected countries in Southeast Asia, namely Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand and (2) To identify other factors that may affect their defence expenditures. This study applies a qualitative research method called content analysis from the Military Balance online database by compiling defence expenditures data in selected countries in Southeast Asia from 1988 to 2007 for the first aim and reviews existing literatures on factors that may affect their defence expenditures for the second aim of this study. Results show that there is a decreasing trend for defence expenditures as a percentage of GDP and an increasing trend of the actual amount of defence expenditures. This study also indicates that there are other factors that may affect their defence expenditures: military technological advancements; quality, prestige and force-multipliers and arms race or maintaining the status quo. The contribution of the study is to verify evidences that these selected Southeast Asia countries need to develop their own defence for their national sovereignty and integrity to replace old and antiquated military equipment, as well as attaining prestige and force-multipliers effects to achieve a form of national status and enhancing the military capabilities of their armed forces.
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In-Text Citation: (Sulaiman, Yahaya, Ananthan, Mohaiyadin, & Aman, 2019)
To Cite this Article: Sulaiman, A., Yahaya, M. N., Ananthan, S., Mohaiyadin, N. M. H., & Aman, H. A. (2019). Defense Expenditures of Selected Countries in Southeast Asia. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 9(6), 1002–1015.
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