Arms: Purpose, Trade, Control

Abstract

The development, manufacture, sale and use of weapons and munitions are huge businesses representing a large segment of the world’s total economic activity. A few figures may help to illustrate the scale. In 1989 the United States spent $77 billion on military equipment; Britain ,£4.7 billion. But the operation of this equipment in terms of wages, food, uniforms for the soldiers, sailors and airmen, fuel for the tanks, ships and aircraft and maintenance of the bases added to the total bills. These came to $304 billion for the United States and £21 billion for Britain, or 5.9 per cent and 4.2 per cent of those countries’ GNPs respectively. There have been countries like the USSR, Israel and Iraq who have in recent years spent far higher proportions of their total wealth — even as much as a fifth of their GNP — on their armed forces.