TRENDS IN ARMS PRODUCTION, TRANSFERS AND TRADE
TRENDS IN ARMS PRODUCTION, TRANSFERS AND TRADE

Summary/Abstract: The study explores, extensively using several types of clearly complementary open sources, several recent significant facts and trends, all of them relevant, in our opinion, for a better understanding of the way in which military production, international arms trade, plus other types of transferring military technologies are methods aimed at influencing – and sometimes at massively shaping or changing – power distribution and major geo-strategic evolutions on the international arena. The paper starts by exploring two potent examples proving how important the consequences of arms trade and arms transfers can be. Then the article explores data and figures present in The Military Balance 2013, edited by IISS in London. The volume underlines that military spending in Asia-Pacific region and in the Middle East is growing, while in Western Europe and the U.S. is decreasing, as a direct result of economic crisis generating new, less ambitious and less expensive procurement policies. The same volume offers significant figures for a better understanding of the trends in international arms trade. The final conclusion of the paper is that a careful study of the trends in arms production and arms trade is a must for better understanding major evolutions on the world arena.

• Details
• Contents