ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors address whether military expenditures in the region in general, and in particular in their sample of seven cases, Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and India, have been at the expense of national human resource development. Based on this analysis several implications are drawn as to the development of human capital in the Middle East and South Asia. Human capital accumulation can be stimulated in developing countries through public education expenditure, as well as government spending on health and other social services. Concurrent with rapid economic growth in sample countries, there has been an acceleration in military spending, but at a slightly lower rate than the overall expansion of the economy. While military expenditures do appear to retard human capital development in the region, the fact remains that levels of educational expenditures in the region are still high by Third World standards.
