The manufacture and sale of arms is once again one of the most profitable and prosperous businesses after the short-lived lean spell of 2012, when there was a 91% fall in worldwide military spending.
Cira Rodríguez César
A recent report from Sweden’s Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has indicated that world trade in conventional arms increased by 14% between 2011 and 2015 in comparison with the previous five year period and that the US has confirmed its position as the world’s main exporter of weapons.
It also reports the rise in sales to Asia, Oceania and the Middle East with India, Saudi Arabia and China coming out as major importers over the last five years.
“With the increase in regional tensions and conflicts the US is maintaining its position as the world’s leading supplier of arms by some distance,” indicated Aude Fleurant , director of SIPRI’s new Arms and Military Expenditure Programme.
Indeed, the US supplied arms to at least 96 countries over the last five years with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as its main customers.
Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, Raytheon, Boeing Defense, Almaz Antei, Airbus and other big arms manufacturers registered new sales records whilst the mergers and acquisitions – which give rise to ever more powerful ’empires’ at the top of the world’s international organisations, governments, banks and media – continue unabated.
The successes of the arms industry are a well-known secret, but what lies at the heart of their success?
In the first place, the arms industry is a special one governed by different rules from industry in general. Arms manufacturers are private entities – though the state is involvement is depended on by some of them – which sell almost all their products to governments abroad.
Since it is the public purse which finances the majority of projects involving military innovation (which create ever more lethal technologies) these corporations act for the State designing, producing and exporting arms.
It is a very profitable business where public money serves to finance the design and purchase of aeroplanes, frigates, rockets and tanks.
“The industry continually requests the government’s support to sell its wares oversees,” acknowledges Eva Cervera, director of EDEFA, the largest Hispanic organisation specialising in Defence.
For instance, US company Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest arms manufacturer, turns over more than €34 billion per year, which is more than the GDP of 97 countries and five times the UN budget for peace missions.
Even countries with big economic problems invest in arms, as is the case with Greece.
Shortly before receiving their first bailout in 2010 the German government established a special line of credit for the Greek authorities so they could pay for the arms they had ordered from Germany.
Germany, one of the countries which placed most pressure on Greece to apply harsh cuts and austerity measures, is its main arms supplier: Greece allocates 4% of its GDP to military spending.
Furthermore, another significant feature of the arms industry is its link with government: in the US donations to electoral campaigns from military contractors are vital for reaching the White House.
In 2013, arms manufacturers paid out more than $137 million in garnering the support of US congressmen according to the Centre for Responsible Policy whose headquarters are in Washington.
The ‘death industry,’ which is how many NGOs describe it, also benefits from expensive reconstruction projects after wars which is why some consultants are already predicting new conflicts associated with climate change and food and water shortages. They are also predicting record military sales for 2016.
Worrying facts
Small Arms Survey, a Swiss organisation of great international repute in this area, suggests that legal and illegal trade between nations are often two sides of the same coin, where sales to groups of insurgents and the supply of arms to regimes which clearly violate human rights are masked.
The UN calculates the economic impact in global terms of weapon-related deaths to be more than $400 billion.
Concerning the trade of conventional arms as a whole (from ammunition to tanks) it calculates that more than $85 billion passes hands between countries each year.
Of this quantity, Small Arms Survey calculates the amount of trade in small arms and munitions to be a little over $10 billion per year, with ammunition the largest single area at $4.266 billion.
They also point out that the five leading exporters of light arms are the US, Italy, Germany, Brazil and Austria: each exporting at least $100 million in light arms per year.
Similarly, the main importers in this area are the US, Canada, Germany, Australia, France and the UK, according to the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs which estimates moreover that between 40% and 60% of the world’s small arms trade is illegal.
No results
In April of 2013 the UN General Assembly passed the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) – which came into force at the end of December 2014 – with 154 votes in favour, 3 against and 23 abstentions.
Of all the signatory states to date only 64 have ratified the treaty and the US – a country responsible for a third of the world’s military exports and which boasts 88 arms per 100 of its own citizens – does not count among them.
The agreement establishes a series of mechanisms for controlling the arms trade. For instance, nations selling arms will have to review all contracts in order to ensure that they are not selling to countries subject to embargoes or which violate human rights.
Its aim is to achieve more effective monitoring regarding the destination of all arms, to seek to provide clearly defined requirements for the granting of export licences and to prevent arms from being used against the civilian population.
Important commentators criticise it as an arms lobby whilst others suggest that it may restrict White House foreign policy.
The passing of this treaty has been a great struggle for civil society and several NGOs such as Oxfam International who have fought for more than a decade to see the international community monitor this trade.
However, what is the point in the treaty when in the Middle East, for instance, nations continue to arm others and rebel groups commit atrocities against civilian populations?
‘For the first time an international instrument exists which is legally binding and obliges arms exporting countries to carry out an assessment before authorising sales. Moreover, these countries will have to comply with the criteria laid down by the ATT’ asserts Marc Finaud, expert in disarmament from the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) which promotes peace, security and disarmament.
The criteria invoked by the ATT are contained in the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and are maintained under international humanitarian law.
Nonetheless, the attempt to force those involved in legal arms trading to be responsible (for policing the issue) thereby preventing illegal arms from finding their way into the hands of those involved in terrorism and organised crime has been unsuccessful to date.
By ‘arms’ the ATT includes pistols alongside missiles, missile launchers, warships, tanks, large calibre artillery, combat aircraft and other military hardware. (PL)
(Translated by Nigel Conibear – DipTrans IoLET ACIL – nigelconibear@gmail.com)