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A few dozens of political leaders and prominent figures of the ‘other Syrian opposition’ gathered in Geneva to plead for a non-violent transition to a democratic and secular Syria. According to the organizers it is the first international conference of the Syrian popular and peaceful civil movement that aspires

Syria is going downwards on a steep slope. The armed confrontation between the Syrian army and the armed opposition is sparing no one: 40,000 deaths, 200,000 injured, dozens of destroyed villages and various hundred of thousands refugees. The only recipe that regional and international big powers can think of...

SIPRI is an independent international institute dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament. One of the things it is best known for is its annual publication every April of military expenditures.

Since 2008 the world has been hit hard by the economic and financial crisis. Government expenditures are being severely cut on a global scale with harsh social consequences. Notwithstanding the smaller official budgets the military spending is hardly concerned by the cuts.

The world spent 1,74 trillion dollar on military and defense in 2011. This sum is unacceptably high and stands in sharp contrast to the worldwide spending on development aid, which is not even a tenth of this amount.

Although we live in times of crisis, the Belgian government still finds 242 million euro in the budget year 2012 to invest in military equipment. For the year to come the Minister of Defense, Pieter De Crem, assigns 212 million euro to his investment plan.