take japan, for instance, which sipri says is going through a profound shift in its military policy,rom a pacifist to an active army. india is investing heavily to o, increasing its drones, light tanks and their equipment. and in the middle east, saudi arabia is now the fifth highest spender in the world, jumping to around $75 billion. so while russia's invasion of ukraine has had a clear impact, sipri says global military spending has been rising continuously for the last eight years. the data is also showing us something else. >> it really is quite a fundamental shift in that 2022 not only is the highest level of military spending ever recorded, it really reflects maybe a changing of the times. where countries are signaling that we are living in an increasingly insecure world where states are essentially bolstering military strength. building security through a deterrence, rather than essentially peaceful negotiations. ♪ imran: we have a lot to discuss. let's bring in our guests in washington. elisabeth braw, senior fellow with the foreign and defense policy at the american enterpr

a senior researcher at the sipri think tank behind this report. >> it really points to the security perceptionntries see on russia. and that actually this has been justified in russia's actions in 2022, such that europe is looking for security through military strength over negotiations or dialogue. first of all, from a central and western european perspective, spending started to increase after russia annexed crimea in 2014. there was a response to really build up european militaries in response to russia's threats. and of course if you look at more from an east asia-u.s. perspective, china and the u.s. have been looking to modernize its military since the early 2010's and this will continue all the way through the 2040's. it is definitely worrying that the region as a whole is increasing his armaments spending. large countries and even smaller countries like indonesia, singapore, vietnam have all increased spending as a response to china's increase. it is rather worrying that countries in the region ae essentially -- are essentially increasing allocations of the military. off negotiations of