USA: Champion of Peace or Largest Arms Supplier?

The quest of power has been solaced at the expense of human life since ages. Some economists refer war as “engine of growth” while others believe that war crowds out the development resources from economy. Nevertheless, there is a consensus that armed conflicts bring forth huge loss to life and property. The countries have suffered a lot in terms of economy, infrastructure, human and financial resources.

Globalization has many positives but it is also a fact that with increasing liberty of movement across borders, the trade of arms has increased. The data reveals that the biggest arms suppliers worldwide include five permanent members of United Nations Security Council, while the main recipient of these arms are developing countries.

United States is the largest supplier of arms with 16,160 million US dollars worth of arms exported for the period 2004-11 followed by Russia (8,700 million US dollars) and France (1700 million US dollars). The United States hold the largest share with 36% of the total supplies worldwide for the period 2004-11.*

The United States major supply went to the developing world. The 63.3% of the total worldwide supplies of arms is delivered to developing world which makes them the market for the production of arms in US and other major producers. Almost 85% of Russian supplies of arms goes to developing world, similarly the supplies by France, UK, China, Italy to developing world comprise of approximately more than 50% of total supplies.*

This is easy to observe that the flow of arms is from developed countries towards the developing world and thus the flow of revenue is just the reverse. According to SIPRI report published in 2012, majority of the top arm manufacturers (7 out of 10 to be precise) are in USA. In 2013, Russia and USA are the two largest arm exporters in the world (source: SIPRI).

It is now worth mentioning that almost all the wars currently going on, in fact against the rebels and terrorists by either the NATO forces or the governments, are in developing countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Ukraine, Egypt, Nigeria and others.

The transfer of arms needs to be controlled and the moral responsibility of each manufacturer is huge. The facts and figures point out that the majority of the armaments is being produced in developed world and used in developing countries where the human right violation is high, the militancy ratio is high and where there is terrorism and frequent use of arms. The onus lies on the manufacturers and their governments to keep an eye on such considerations, doesn’t it? Shouldn’t the world community be responsible to regulate and check the unlawful movement collectively?

If truth be told, most of the arms transfers are observed to be irresponsible and without proper scrutiny. The countries usually exclude the arms trade from general trade laws and regulations. This is no more a secret that arms industry in major developed world is involved in bribe and corruption. The producers have strong pressure groups in government machinery that provides leverage and exploits the loopholes.

Arms transfer may not be the sole reason for the violation of human rights but surely a strong contributor and is like adding fuel to fire. The weak governments usually find it easy to spend more on defense to establish their writ by use of force over the rebels. The transfer of arms to such undemocratic countries is a serious threat to human rights considerations. Moreover the arms supply is often towards both the government as well as the rebels; either through hidden contracts or through underground channels. This situation poses grave peril to the life of common man; rather is at a sheer contrast with moral considerations and humanity.

Large producers and businesses seldom consider ethics and morality. The war serves as a business opportunity for the arm producers and it is observed that the arms producers are always ready to cash the regional tensions and growing conflicts between nations. The World Policy Institute reported in 2005 that US promised F-16 to Pakistan and high tech arsenal to India in the wake of rising tension between the two arch rivals. This is but against the proclaimed policy of conflict resolution by US; rather helped in fueling the conflict by increasing the war capacity. This is very well put by former US president Jimmy Carter long ago in 1976;

“We can’t have it both ways. We can’t be both the world’s leading champion of peace and the world’s leading supplier of arms.”

The authority and power brings moral responsibility. Clearly the major producers of arms are in developed world and thus they have a larger control over this arms trade.

*(Source: Richard F. Grimmett, CRS Report for Congress; Conventional Arms Transfer to Developing Nations 2004-2011)