CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VII (1, 2) Contemporary-Eurasia-3new | Page 30

CONTEMPORARY EURASIA
If to compare two graphs above, it becomes clear, that the oil income
cannot be the sole variable explaining constant military build-up in Azer-
baijan. As the fi gure shows the third wave of military growth started since
2010 when the MD of Azerbaijan was adopted, and the policy implementa-
tion stemming from it has put into execution. Since 2010 Azerbaijan regis-
tered “the second largest increase” in the world regarding the defense bud-
get. 36 According to Global Security’s analysis, Azerbaijan purchased 249%
more equipment during 2010-2014 in comparison with the period of 2005-
2009. 37 Azerbaijan has become the second largest arms importer in Europe
receiving 13% of weapon deliveries in 2010-2014 and trailing only UK
(14%). 38 Furthermore, Azerbaijan is the 4th biggest UAV importing country
in the world since 2010. Drone imports comprise 7.8% of global market
trailing only the UK (33.9%), India (13.2%) and Italy (9.8%). 39 According
to BICC (Bonn International Center for Conversation), Azerbaijan was in
the 11th place among the most militarized countries of the world in 2016. 40
If to assess the situation in CIS countries Azerbaijan is on the 3rd place
among the most militarized countries after Armenia and Russia.
Table 1 The rate of militarization in CIS countries 2016 (source: BICC, 2016)
CIS countries* GMI score Rank
Armenia 832. 69 1
Russia 805. 61 2
Azerbaijan 774. 92 3
Belarus 761. 31 4
Ukraine 738. 23 5
Georgia 619. 45 6
Kyrgyzstan 612. 32 7
Moldova 569. 7 8
Kazakhstan 565. 24 9
Tajikistan 476. 26 10
*No data available on Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
36
37
38
39
40
“Trends in international arms transfers, 2014 (n.d.),” Stockholm International Peace Re-
search Institute, 2014, https://www.sipri.org/publications/2015/sipri-fact-sheets/trends-inter-
national-arms-transfers-2014 (June 15, 2018).
Ibid.
Ibid.
“Trends in international arms transfers, 2015. (n.d.),” Stockholm International Peace Re-
search Institute, 2015. https://www.sipri.org/publications/2015/sipri-fact-sheets/trends-inter-
national-arms-transfers-2015 (accessed June 11, 2018).
“Global Militarization Index,” Bonn International Center for Conversation, 2016. https://
gmi.bicc.de/index.php?page=ranking-table&year=2016&sort=rank_asc (accessed June 4,
2018).
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