Arms and the State
Patterns of Military Production and Trade

This book analyses the structure and motive forces that shape the global arms transfer and production system.

Keith Krause (Author)

9780521558662, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 10 August 1995

320 pages
23 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.467 kg

'Keith Krause's book is strong across the board: it develops new historical materials spanning centuries; it attends to the complex interrelationships among international politics, dominant processes of international economics, and technological developments … and it analyzes contemporary arms-trade data.' American Political Science Review

This book analyses the structure and motive forces that shape the global arms transfer and production system. The author distinguishes three tiers of arms producers, defined by such factors as defence production base, military research and development capabilities, and dependence upon arms exports. These factors interact with underlying political, economic, and military motivations to drive states to produce and export arms, and provide the force which directs the international trade in arms. The author discusses the United States and the Soviet Union, the European arms suppliers, and the emerging arms producers of the developing world. Although it concentrates on the contemporary period, the book covers a wide historical span, from the development of military technologies in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to twentieth-century revolutions in weaponry. By focusing on the processes of technological innovation and diffusion, the author shows the evolutionary nature of the spread of military technologies, and situates the current arms transfer system in a broad historical context.

1. Motive forces in the evolution of the arms transfer and production system
2. The emergence of a global arms transfer and production system
3. From the Military Revolution to the Industrial Revolution
4. An overview of the post-1945 global arms transfer system
5. The dominance of first-tier producers and suppliers
6. Second-tier producers and suppliers: the struggle to keep pace
7. Dependent production and exports in the third tier
8. The subordinate role of arms recipients.

Subject Areas: Arms trade [JWXF]