What is the world's most influential democracy doing at the top of the weapons dealer's list? Annual report by the Congressional Research division of the Library of Congress on arms sales, Conventional Arms Transfers to
Developing Nations, 1997-2004- 94 page PDF puts the US at the top of the heap of conventional arms dealers in the world. US took the lion's share of global weapons sales in 2004, signing over $12.4 billion or 33.5 percent of all contracts worldwide. A subsequent NY Times article discusses the exponential jump in arms sales from $28.5 billion in 2003 to $37 billion in 2004.
Read the same report closer and you will find out what the largest democracy is up to. India -the nation with the most number of poor people and most number of illiterates, found money in its chequers to become the leading buyer of conventional arms among developing nations in 2004, racking up $5.4 billion dollars of arms agreements. And no, this was not a single year blip - "India was also the leading developing world purchaser over the 1997-2004 period, sealing 10% of all such arms agreements." according to the BBC article on the issue
So, why is it that world's two largest democracies are blazing trails in the arms market. Two primary arguments given in defense of arms sales are as follows -
It helps the economy and Weapon sales can be used as a political tool, and both are patently false.
The rebuttal for the first comes from "British American Security Information Council". It reports what three leading British Think Tanks have already found - that claims of economic benefits from arms sales are bogus. Read more ,
Full report. They argue that similar amount of money can be used to generate many more jobs and train people in much more in demand, cross-functionality professions than the ultra-specialized weapons manufacturing process.
Lets move on to the second supposed benefit - that of political influence. Now we all know about US and its "influence" on Saudi Arabia and how Saudi Arabia is wilting under its pressure. Right? Let's chew on this -
"Along with economic and security factors, diplomatic rationales have long been used to justify arms trading. Proponents claim that arms sales allow suppliers to gain and maintain "influence" with recipients.
Over the years, Congress has attempted to exert this leverage by placing conditions on U.S. weapons exports. However, these requirements have often been tepidly enforced or blatantly ignored. U.S. clients have acted in opposition to American laws or policies, largely with impunity; witness on-going widespread human rights abuses in Turkey, Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, Saudi Arabia's retransfer of American-supplied arms to Iraq in the 1980s, and the Thai military's continuing support for the Khmer Rouge.
Article comments
1 - adam
Most informative post. Thank you very much indeed. Like your blog, too.
I see there's a new movie coming out, called Lord of War, starring Nicolas Cage, about the arms business. I wonder if it's going to expose the leading role of the U.S. in this deadly, nefarious, repulsive and immoral trade.