Braxton Taylor
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) collectively spent $220.6 billion on defense in 2024, amounting to about 9.5 percent of the global total for the year. Nearly all states in the MENA region that publish their annual defense spending data increased their budget year-on-year from 2023, expanding at an average rate of 15.6 percent — the fastest rate in the world, even above that of Europe.
Underpinning the strong growth in MENA defense spending is a challenging security environment, heavily defined by the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and subsequent Israeli offensive into the Gaza Strip. The conflict widened in 2024, as Israeli troops skirmished with Hezbollah and southern Lebanon and traded missile strikes with Iran directly. The Yemeni militant group Ansar Allah, meanwhile, began attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, disrupting commercial traffic through the Suez Canal.
The Israeli government reached a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah in November 2024, followed by a separate arrangement with Hamas two months later. Successful implementation of these deals would stabilize the situation on Israel’s northern and southern borders, but regional tension is unlikely to abate quickly.
MENA defense spending is likely to remain on the upswing even as Israel’s conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah wind down. While Middle Eastern governments have largely sought to avoid entanglement in the broader stand-off between Israel and Iran, the region’s militaries remain concerned about blowback from the fighting. Dynamics of the recent wars have moreover exposed gaps in regional force structures and capabilities, requiring new procurement.
On top of persistent state rivalries in MENA, the region’s frozen conflicts are at perennial risk of re-opening. Towards the end of 2024, a new shock hit the Middle East, as Syria’s dormant civil war reignited with a rebel offensive that toppled the Assad regime, forcing Syria’s neighbors to rapidly reconfigure their political approach to the country. The sudden collapse of the Assad regime has also put a spotlight on other frozen wars, such as in Libya.
MENA Military Market
At $71.4 billion in 2024, the Saudi defense budget is by far the largest in the Middle East, and the fourth largest in the world, behind only the U.S., China, and Russia. Riyadh added about 8.5 percent to its defense budget in 2024 compared to 2023. The expansion to the budget continues a growth trend begun in 2022 that snapped a multi-year period of stagnation in Saudi defense outlays.
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