Waterways:
671,886 km (2004)
Merchant marine:
total: 33,222 ships (1000 GRT or over) (2006)
Military World
Military expenditures - dollar figure: aggregate real expenditure on arms worldwide has increased in the beginning of the 21st century, with the largest increase in the US; a rough estimate for 2005 is $1.2 trillion (at puchasing power parity) (2005 est.)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP: roughly 2% of gross world product (2005 est.)
Transnational Issues World
Disputes - international:
stretching over 250,000 km, the world's 329 international land
boundaries separate the 193 independent states and 73 dependencies,
areas of special sovereignty, and other miscellaneous entities;
ethnicity, culture, race, religion, and language have divided states
into separate political entities as much as history, physical
terrain, political fiat, or conquest, resulting in sometimes
arbitrary and imposed boundaries; maritime states have claimed
limits and have so far established over 130 maritime boundaries and
joint development zones to allocate ocean resources and to provide
for national security at sea; boundary, borderland/resource, and
territorial disputes vary in intensity from managed or dormant to
violent or militarized; most disputes over the alignment of
political boundaries are confined to short segments and are today
less common and less hostile than borderland, resource, and
territorial disputes; undemarcated, indefinite, porous, and
unmanaged boundaries, however, encourage illegal cross-border
activities, uncontrolled migration, and confrontation; territorial
disputes may evolve from historical and/or cultural claims, or they
may be brought on by resource competition; ethnic and cultural
clashes continue to be responsible for much of the territorial
fragmentation around the world; disputes over islands at sea or in
rivers frequently form the source of territorial and boundary
conflict; other sources of contention include access to water and
mineral (especially petroleum) resources, fisheries, and arable
land; nonetheless, most nations cooperate to clarify their
international boundaries and to resolve territorial and resource
disputes peacefully; regional discord today prevails not so much
between the armed forces of independent states as between stateless
armed entities that detract from the sustenance and welfare of local
populations, leaving the community of nations to cope with resultant
refugees, hunger, disease, impoverishment, and environmental
degradation
Refugees and internally displaced persons: the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that in December 2005 there was a global population of 8.4 million registered refugees, the lowest number in 26 years, and as many as 23.7 million IDPs in more than 50 countries; the actual global population of refugees is probably closer to 10 million given the estimated 1.5 million Iraqi refugees displaced throughout the Middle East (2006)
Trafficking in persons:
current situation: about 600,000 to 800,000 people, mostly women
and children, are trafficked annually across national borders, not
including millions trafficked within their own countries; at least
80% of the victims are female; 75% of all victims are trafficked
into commercial sexual exploitation; roughly two-thirds of the
global victims are trafficked intra-regionally within East Asia and
the Pacific (260,000 to 280,000 people) and Europe and Eurasia
(170,000 to 210,000 people)
Illicit drugs:
cocaine: worldwide coca cultivation in 2004 amounted to 166,200
hectares; Colombia produced slightly more than two-thirds of the
worldwide crop, followed by Peru and Bolivia; potential pure cocaine
production of 645 metric tons in 2004 marked the lowest level of
Andean cocaine production in the past 10 years; Colombia conducts
aggressive coca eradication campaign, but both Peruvian and Bolivian
Governments are hesitant to eradicate coca in key growing areas; 376
metric tons of export-quality cocaine are documented to have been
seized in 2003, and 26 metric tons disrupted (jettisoned or
destroyed); consumption of export quality cocaine is estimated to
have been 800 metric tons
opiates: worldwide illicit opium poppy cultivation reached 258,630
hectares in 2004; potential opium production of 5,444 metric tons
was highest total recorded since estimates began in mid-1980s;
Afghanistan is world's primary opium producer, accounting for 91% of
the global supply; Southeast Asia - responsible for 7% of global
opium - continued to diminish in importance in the world opium
market; Latin America produced 2% of global opium, but most refined
into heroin destined for United States; if all opium processed into
pure heroin, the potential global production would be 632 metric
tons of heroin in 2004