The Arms Trade: Business As Usual?

Abstract

Q uestion: What is the post-Cold War global policy on conventional arms sales? Answer: Competition. Or free trade, as some might say. Increasingly, almost everyone sells almost anything to just about anyone who can pay-and often to some who cannot. On rare occasions, some countries deny advanced weapons to unstable regions or to so-called pariah states. But then some other seller seizes the competitive opportunity created by the denial, makes a rogue sale, and the arms lobby cries, foul play. In the absence of any enforceable multilateral restraints, the invisible hand has become the principal mechanism for allocating potent conventional weapons and associated technologies on a global basis. Globalization of arms production and military technology is a form of proliferation that threatens the emerging framework of agreements on weapons of mass destruction as well as the global system of trade and investment. It is a direct impediment to the achievement of peace and international security. Clearly, the world needs a new concept of proliferation that can override parochial economic interests and the fanciful notion that conventional arms are commodities that should be traded freely. It is plainly worth working toward this end. But in the meantime, we have to face the facts: There is no clear policy toward global arms exports and the transfer of military technology, any rhetoric to the contrary notwithstanding.