Instead of military expenditure, they are pouring their resources into education, innovation and embracing their bio-diversity.

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However, the senator added that the aid is tied to cuts in military expenditure.

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Twenty years ago Salt Lake was an isolated town, dependent largely on mining and military expenditure.

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He also worries that military expenditure may have been cut too far.

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The data only go back to 1955 but I am betting the real burden in 1990s was on par with the burden right after World War II, when the US government also ran a surplus on the back of high taxes and declining military expenditure.

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Furthermore, lest anyone simplistically respond that Africans just emerging from conflicts need peacebuilding, not the accoutrements of armed security, it is worth recalling that acclaimed development economist Paul Collier and his colleague Anke Hoeffler found in their study on Military Expenditure in Post-Conflict Society that in the first five years after a peace agreement a given country's estimated risk of renewed conflict is about 44 percent.

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