The world’s top defense and security officials are descending on the opulent Hotel Bayerischer Hof this week for the Munich Security Conference — cozy in setting, seismic in consequence. The hotel, which survived two world wars, has hosted the gathering since 1963, when leaders hoped talking might help prevent a third.
This year’s conference comes amid extreme changes in the security landscape. United States Vice President JD Vance told his European counterparts at last year’s conference that Europe must “step up in a big way to provide for its own defence.”
The continent took that to heart. Germany’s total defense spending is expected to rise to about €82.7 billion ($98.23 billion) in 2026. This is about €29.4 billion more than the amount earmarked in 2025. The number of soldiers in the German armed forces is expected to increase by up to 10,000 in 2026. Italy has plans to boost its defense budget to $48.8 billion from $35.4 billion, and the United Kingdom’s 2024 defense budget of $84.2 billion is slated to rise to $90.5 billion. In fact, every NATO country is expected to raise defense spending this year.
About the author
Jesse Chase-Lubitz
Jesse Chase-Lubitz covers climate change and multilateral development banks for Devex. She previously worked at Nature Magazine, where she received a Pulitzer grant for an investigation into land reclamation. She has written for outlets such as Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and The Japan Times, among others. Jesse holds a master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics.
