ANNEX
DATA NOTES, COUNTRY SUMMARIES, AND ADDITIONAL STATISTICS
This Annex is organized into five sections, described below.
A. Data Notes. This section presents sources and notes pertaining to the data used in the Report and summarized in this Annex.
B. Country Summaries. This section provides summary information for responsibility sharing contributions on a country-by-country basis.
Defense capability measures shown in these tables reflect a country’s share of total contributions relative to its share of ability to contribute. Thus, a ratio around 1 indicates that a country’s contribution is in balance with its ability to contribute. A ratio above 1 suggests that a country is contributing beyond its "fair share," while a ratio below 1 means contributions are not commensurate with ability to contribute.
Note: With the exception of cost sharing estimates, all dollar figures shown in the country summary charts are in 1999 dollars, using 1999 exchange rates. Cost sharing figures reflect 1998 contributions, and are calculated using 1998 dollars and exchange rates.
C. Selected Indicators. Data upon which many of the Report’s assessments are based involve a comparison of a country’s contributions relative to its ability to contribute. This section provides the data upon which this analysis is based. The analysis is conducted in three stages:
When this analysis results in a ratio of around 1.0, a country’s contribution is judged to be in balance with its ability to contribute. Generally speaking, the Department gives a nation credit for "substantial contributions" relative to its ability to contribute when it achieves a ratio of 1.2 or greater. Ratios of 0.8 or less indicate very low effort relative to ability to contribute.
D. Bilateral Cost Sharing. This section presents detailed estimates of nations’ bilateral cost sharing support for the United States during 1998, the most recent year for which complete data are available.
E. Additional Statistics. This section provides data values upon which many of the Selected Indicators are based. Most of the tables in this section also provide information such as subtotals, shares, and ranks. The subtotals and grand total in Tables E-2, E-5, and E-7 are actually weighted averages. For example, the raw data for defense spending is summed for each group of nations and then divided by the sum of GDP for the same group of nations. This provides a more accurate figure than calculating an average based on the percentages portrayed. Note: In Tables E-8 through E-10, only shares and ranks can be presented since actual data values are classified.
The assessments presented in this Report are only as good as the data upon which they are based. The Department has every confidence that the data used for the assessments in this Report are as complete, current, and comprehensive as they can be, given the deadlines established in the legislation.
The FY 1999 Defense Authorization Act requires the Department to measure the year-to-year change in nations’ responsibility sharing performance. The Department has compiled relevant comparisons for the two most recent years for which complete and reliable data are available.
Data Sources
Defense spending data are provided by a variety of sources. NATO’s December 1999 report on Financial and Economic Data Relating to NATO Defense is the primary source for past and current defense spending data for the NATO nations, including the United States. Sources of defense spending data for Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the GCC nations include U.S. embassies in the host nations, recent national defense white papers (where available), and the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
For purposes of standardization and comparability, this Report presents defense spending figures using the NATO definition wherever possible. According to this approach, defense expenditures are defined as outlays made by national governments specifically to meet the needs of the armed forces. In this context, the term "national government" limits "defense expenditures" to those of central or federal governments, to the exclusion of state, provincial, local, or municipal authorities. Regardless of when payments are charged against the budget, defense expenditures for any given period include all payments made during that period. In cases where actual 1999 defense outlays are not available, final defense budget figures are substituted. War damage compensation, veterans’ pensions, payments out of retirement accounts, and civil defense and stockpiling costs for industrial raw materials or semi-furnished products are not included in this definition of defense spending.
GDP data for NATO members, the Republic of Korea, and Japan are taken from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). GDP data for the GCC countries (which are not reported by OECD) are drawn from the World Bank and The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
UN peacekeeping data are taken from the latest available UN reports (funding through December 1998, personnel as of November 1999).
Military personnel data are taken from an annual NATO Press Release (December 1999) and the International Institute of Strategic Studies.
Military forces data (ground, naval, and air) are based on information provided by nations under the Conventional Forces Europe (CFE) data exchange (for those forces limited by CFE), supplemented with data from responses to NATO’s Defense Planning Questionnaire (for those nations that participate in NATO’s integrated defense planning process), open sources (such as Jane’s Defense publications and magazines and the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ (IISS) Military Balance for 1999-00), and DoD sources.
Ground combat capability data assess major combat systems, including tanks, artillery, and attack helicopters for army and marine units. Armored vehicles, anti-tank weapons, and mortars are no longer included in this assessment and transport, small arms, or combat support assets have never been included. The quantity and quality of nations’ equipment holdings are assessed using widely accepted static measures. Estimates are normalized using the score of a U.S. armored brigade in order to express each nation’s static ground force potential in terms of a standardized unit of measure.
Naval tonnage data includes aircraft carriers, attack submarines (non-strategic), principal surface combatants (cruisers, destroyers, frigates, and larger corvettes), mine warfare ships and craft (including mine layers), patrol combatant ships, and amphibious warfare ships. Strategic submarines, patrol craft, amphibious craft, or service support craft are not included.
Air forces data includes fixed-wing combat aircraft (air force, naval, and marine assets) in the following categories: fighter/interceptor, fighter/bomber, conventional bomber, and tactical fighter reconnaissance aircraft (including combat capable trainer and electronic warfare aircraft). Not included are maritime patrol aircraft (MPA), anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft, transports or air-to-air refueling aircraft, strategic bombers, or any support or special mission aircraft.
Multinational military activities data assesses a) national contributions to NATO’s Reaction Forces and other multinational formations, b) national ground forces that are available for prolonged UN, NATO, OSCE and/or WEU peacekeeping operations, and c) funding or personnel contributions to UN peacekeeping operations. Ground forces contributions are quantified in combat maneuver brigade equivalents (excluding organic divisional combat support units), and naval contributions in numbers of principal surface combatants (PSCs). Air forces contributions are measured in terms of combat aircraft.
Cost sharing data are provided by U.S. embassies and DoD components, including the military departments and commands. DoD components also provide estimates of U.S. stationing costs by country. Cost sharing data and stationing cost estimates for a given year are collected by the Department during the spring of the following year, and are then evaluated and published as budget exhibits. Due to the Congressional deadline for this Report, the Department provides estimates for 1998 instead of 1999. Data gaps and the classification of some figures prevent full coverage of cost sharing and stationing cost estimates for all nations covered in this Report. For example, cost offset percentages cannot be calculated for most GCC nations due to lack of information regarding U.S. stationing costs in those countries. Data for the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland are not included in the cost sharing assessments, as data for 1997 and 1998 are not available. Future Reports will include an assessment of these nations cost sharing efforts
Bilateral cost sharing is divided into two categories, according to whether the costs are borne by the host nation on-budget (direct cost sharing), or as imputed values of foregone revenues (indirect cost sharing). Direct cost sharing includes costs borne by host nations in support of stationed U.S. forces for rents on privately owned land and facilities, labor, utilities, facilities, and vicinity improvements. Indirect cost sharing includes foregone rents and revenues, including rents on government-owned land and facilities occupied or used by U.S. forces at no or reduced cost to the United States, and tax concessions or customs duties waived by the host nation.
Due to multiple sources for cost sharing data, these estimates are subject to some variation. Generally, in this Report, the Department uses the conservative end of the range. In addition, fluctuations in exchange rates over time can cause differences in the estimates. This is particularly noticeable for our Pacific allies, where large shares of cost sharing are conducted in host currency, and where we have recently experienced large variations in exchange rates.
Foreign assistance data are provided by the OECD. The OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) encourages commitments of international aid, coordinated aid policies, and consistent aid reporting. The DAC’s definition of "official development assistance" (ODA) is recognized as the international standard for reporting aid provided to developing countries and multilateral institutions. This is immensely useful, since "aid" is an extremely broad term, and encompasses many different types of assistance, which can make contributions from various nations very difficult to compare directly.
The OECD has a 29-nation membership including all NATO countries, Japan, and the Republic of Korea. The OECD establishes economic and political conditions that nations must meet before receiving assistance (e.g., demonstrated commitment to political reform, and free and fair elections). Subsidies are provided in the form of trade and investment credits, grants, and loan guarantees, and are directed into areas such as food aid, medical supplies, and technical assistance in management training, privatization, bank and regulatory reform, environmental projects, market access/trade, nuclear reactor safety, and democratic institution building. The OECD is also coordinating nuclear safety assistance to the New Independent State of the former Soviet Union (NIS).
Aid to 12 of the 22 emerging economies of Central Europe (including the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland) and the NIS does not qualify as official development assistance for OECD purposes, but instead is categorized as "official aid" (OA). Both categories, ODA and OA, cover identical types of assistance, with the only difference being the recipient nations. Other OA recipient nations include more advanced developing countries (e.g., Israel, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates). Recipient nations move from one category of aid to the other depending on their development status. In 1997, Moldova became an ODA recipient and Israel, an OA recipient nation. Total foreign assistance evaluated in this Report is the sum of all ODA and OA.
Foreign assistance data in this Report cover the period 1990 through 1998. At this time, complete and reliable foreign assistance data is available only through 1998 due to complexities and delays in the OECD collection and reporting process, and data are still not complete for some countries for 1990, and 1995-1998. Assistance data is not available for the Czech Republic in any years other than 1994 and 1998, and data for Poland is only reported for 1998. This is to be expected since these nations, along with Hungary, are primarily recipients of foreign assistance. This is also the case with Qatar, for which no foreign assistance contributions are reported, and the United Arab Emirates, which have not reported foreign assistance contributions since 1996. Turkish authorities did not report 1998 assistance efforts to OECD due to the severe earthquake in August of 1999.