In the 30 years since the Iron Curtain came crashing down, trillions of dollars that had been dedicated to Cold War armies and weapons systems were gradually diverted to health care, housing and schools.
That era — when security took a back seat to trade and economic growth — abruptly ended with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.
"The peace dividend is gone,” Kristalina Georgieva, the head of the International Monetary Fund, recently declared, referring to the mountains of cash that were freed up when military budgets shrank. "Defense expenditures have to go up.”
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