Earlier this week, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released a Fact Sheet identifying global, regional, and national trends in military expenditures.

According to the report, the United States led the world in military spending with $640 billion in 2013 alone. China is the closest nation to follow the US at $188 billion — which is less than one-third of America's overall spending.

The U.S. reduced their defense budget by 7.8 percent whereas Russia increased arms spending by $88 billion. For the first time in a decade, Russia devoted a larger share of its GDP to the armed forces than the US.

According to the report, a decrease in American spending is due to the reduction of overseas military operations, chiefly in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The report also notes the role of territorial disputes, namely Russia's recent grab of Crimea and China's assertive behavior towards Japan in the East China Sea as well as Vietnam in the South China Sea.

Russia's confrontations with the West over Crimea alludes to Moscow's larger resurgent military objectives — namely, The State Armaments Plan 2011-2020.

Within this plan, Russia aims to replace 70 percent of military equipment with 'modern' weapons by devoting approximately $705 billion for expenditures.

China's healthy economic growth and steady military spending shows a more long-term defense policy.

The following chart shows how the top 15 nations in defense expenditures rank: