Defense Spending as a Determinant of Poland’s Military Strength

The purpose of the study is to analyze the level of Poland’s defense spending in the years 2008–2018, in the context of their impact on the military strength of the state. The research question of this study is whether the amount of defense spending included in the state budget is a determinant of Poland’s military strength. In accordance with the methodology adopted by NATO, the analysis includes the following aspects: total planned and executed defense spending, the share of defense spending in the state budget spending, the relation of defense spending to the GDP growth rate, and the share of defense spending in GDP. In analyzing Poland’s military strength, a world military strength ranking, Global Firepower, was used. The result of the research is that the most important factors that impact the military strength of individual state economies include the amount of budget spending incurred for the functioning and modernization of the armed forces.