The Economic Pivot in a Political Context by Charles Wolf Jr

Author:Charles Wolf Jr. [Wolf, Charles Jr.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Business & Economics, Development, Business Development, Economic Development, Economics, Theory
ISBN: 9781560003267
Google: PA6eslDrz6sC
Goodreads: 4682819
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1991-01-30T00:00:00+00:00

18

Gun Control at Home, Decontrol Abroad

Although U.S. domestic policies are trying to restrict sales of relatively small, “old-tech” weapons at home (through the Brady Law, the impending ban on assault weapons, and other gun control measures), it is ironic that U.S. foreign and defense policies are expanding sales of large, “high-tech” weapons abroad.

While gun control at home may contribute to improved domestic security, increased foreign sales of advanced weapons create serious hazards for security and stability abroad.

In the late 1980s, the United States’ share of the then $55 billion international weapons market was less than that of the Soviet Union (about 25 percent compared to the Soviet Union’s 40 percent), while the remaining sales were made by France, China, Britain, and other suppliers. It might have been expected that the weapons market would decrease sharply in the 1990s due both to the end of the cold war and financial constraints faced by third world buyers. In fact, the market is close to its previous peak—it is currently over $50 billion annually—as a result of price-cutting and eased financing from suppliers, as well as larger-than-expected demands by buyers in the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia.

The United States has become by far the largest weapon supplier— over 60 percent of the current market—with the remainder divided among Russia, China, France, and others. These weapon sales—including advanced fighter aircraft, missiles, armed helicopters, radars, improved munitions, and naval vessels—will substantially raise the level of violence in future regional conflicts and in international peacekeeping efforts in which American military forces may be involved.

Three principal reasons underlie the expanded role of U.S. weapons sales. First, improving the defense capabilities of countries friendly to the United States—notably, Israel, Egypt, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Turkey, Greece, Indonesia, among others—may, in the disorderly postcold war environment, enhance regional order and stability by making these countries less vulnerable to aggression against them, thereby reducing the probability of regional conflicts.

Second, third world buyers generally prefer U.S. weapons because their technical performance and cost characteristics are superior to the systems provided by other potential suppliers. The weapons market is working as markets are supposed to work: better producers acquire larger market shares.

Third, arms exports provide a partial offset to the severe cutbacks in U.S. defense procurement, and thus a means of keeping the U.S. defense industrial base from eroding too rapidly.

For those who remain concerned and unconvinced by the logic or the validity of these propositions, there is a decisive additional reason that condones expansion of the U.S. share of the global arms market. If U.S. firms were to forgo opportunities for increasing sales abroad, other suppliers—especially France, Russia, China, and Britain—would simply rush in to fill the breach.

The result is that international weapons proliferation proceeds in a relatively unchecked way, thereby storing up serious security problems for the future by ignoring them in the present.

There is a better approach.

As a practical matter, the arms trade cannot be terminated, but it can be selectively controlled. The essence of a practicable

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