Backdating the Defence Map to the End of the Cold War – Claude Understands UI Better Than Me

After I published my map of defence spending a friend suggested that it would be interesting to see how things had changed since the end of the Cold War in 1990/91. I knew that the data I had covered a longer time period so I asked Claude if we could update the map and it checked the data and confirmed that there was reasonable data coverage back to the mid 70’s so I decided to backdate (or is it update?) the map to run from 1975 to 2024. What’s new The extended map now runs from 1975 to 2024, covering periods that include the final years of the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the post-9/11 surge in Western defence spending, and the sharp remilitarisation following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. I’ve improved how the data is presented. Clicking on any country now brings up a combined chart showing all three metrics — military spending as % of GDP, arms imports and arms exports — across all eleven periods in a single view. Hovering over (or tapping on mobile) any part of the…