ABSTRACT
This chapter explores several aspects of the education versus military expenditures issue as it relates to Iraq. In the years following the nationalization of the Iraq Petroleum Company in 1972 and the 1973 oil price increases, Iraq made major efforts to develop its infrastructure, its oil sector, and its goods producing sectors. The consequences for human capital development of increased military expenditures in Iraq can be best assessed within the context of comparative developments taking place simultaneously in neighboring Arab countries. The Arab countries have experienced higher rates of growth of military expenditures per capita relative to education or health expenditures over the 1974/ 1984 periods. The process of human capital development in the Third World appears to be affected to a certain extent by the pattern of military expenditures simultaneously undertaken by the states. The patterns vary considerably by sub-grouping the late 1970s versus the early 1980s.
