Guns, Debt, and Politics: New Variations on an Old Theme

Abstract

The impact of military budgets on Third World debt problems cannot be understood outside the context of the political attractiveness of external borrowing in the 1970s. While military expenditures have increased Third World borrowers' debt levels and impeded their debt service efforts, an analysis of 35 Third World debtor countries between 1974 and 1986 sugges is is less important than the political capacity of debtor governments to mobilize and i rect human and material reurces toward that end. Many Third World countries used much of the borrowed ca, rak to finance current budget deficits, government consumption, and arms imports. TIL apparent worsening of Third World debt service difficulties attributed to military expenditures may reflect defense budgets' and domestic arms industries' intimate connection with the distributive politics of many of these countries.