...printingThe RePEc blog | | Arms Trade and Arms Races: A Strategic AnalysisMaria Garcia-Alonso and Paul Levine (p.levine@surrey.ac.uk)Chapter 29 in Handbook of Defense Economics, 2007, vol. 2, pp 941-971 from ElsevierAbstract: In this chapter we present the main characteristics and problems involved in the study of the arms trade: product definition and data, strategic aspects of the arms trade and regulation. We illustrate these aspects using the latest theoretical and empirical literature on arms trade. The papers reviewed illustrate the complexity involved in studying the arms trade. The nature of the exporters interaction in setting export controls and export policies raises the benefits of coordination in both export control and industrial policies. A failure to coordinate in one of these two policies tends to increase the incentives to deviate from an agreement to coordinate in the other policy, therefore, highlighting the importance of a unified approach to arms trade regulation. Issues such as differences in the security perceptions of exporters, the home bias and the characteristics of the competition between exporter firms may all make the implementation of export controls ever more challenging. Interestingly, although uncertainty will generally make matters worse, it may not if it decreases the effort that exporter firms put into producing higher quality weapons. We argue that supply side regulation will not be enough to prevent arms proliferation among initially...
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...between the US and the Soviet Union. The Cold War dominated a long period of time which began with the end of World War II. It was called the Cold War because there was no active war between the two nations. The two superpowers, US and the Soviet Union, each feared nuclear escalation. The Soviet Union was based on a communist system whereas the US was a capitalist country. There were several confrontations between them including the nuclear arms race, competition to space, and ideology. The nuclear arms race was central to the Cold War. People began to fear that the more nuclear weapons one had the more powerful the country was. Based on this thought the US and the Soviet Union rose to power. “In particular, American officials encouraged the development of atomic weapons like the ones that had ended World War II. Thus began a deadly “arms race.” In 1949, the Soviets...
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...THE ARMS RACE What is an arms race? An arms race is demonstrated through a rapid increase in the quality or quantity of material for military power by rival states during peacetime. The nuclear arms race during the cold war was due to the belief that the more weapons a country had, the more powerful they became. Russia and America took part in this arms race, massively expanding their stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Both countries attempted to gain more nuclear weapons than the other, creating tension and fear that their opposition could possibly use the weapons if a hot war broke out. Soon after World War II ended, new aggression and animosity emerged between the two super powers, USSR and the USA, known as the cold war. This conflict...
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...developed their first nuclear bomb, and in doing so, entered the nuclear arms race, which would prove to continue for the following sixteen years. The United States had already developed their first nuclear weapons and were well on their way to improving and replacing them. The Soviets were well aware of this, and the missile race was created by the two countries wanting to constantly out-do each other. This race appeared to be based on having the best defences from opposition attack, however it was also somewhat of a childish competition between the two to see who could build the bigger bomb. The weapons being developed were never actually used militarily, only in test situations. Had they been used, the safety of the entire world’s population would have been at risk, as both sides had enough weapons to ensure that in the event of a war, there would be Mutually Assured Destruction. As the technology, and the weapons being developed with the technology, was getting more and more advanced, the potential for mass-scale destruction became very real. Bomb sizes, ranges and tactics were being improved at a vast rate, and this put a huge danger to the world. The volatility of these weapons can be exemplified by the USA’s Jupiter missiles, based in Turkey, which, more than once, were struck by lightning, initiating their launch sequence. The range of the missiles was one thing that changed drastically during the arms race. Originally missiles had to be fired from nearby countries or ships...
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...From the period of 1949 to 1963, the Arms race was a period were there which saw two superpowers the USA and the USSR increasing their nuclear technology developments. The arms race ultimately prevented tensions from escalating into an actual fully fledged war. On the other hand there were de-stabilising factors that put both countries on the brink of nuclear warfare and the world at risk of annihilation, such as the pressure of domestic politics, hot wars in Korea and Vietnam, and the Cuban missile crisis. Regardless of these factors the war remained a Cold war. This is because the arms race created the most important stabilising factor which was mutually assured destruction. Both superpowers realised the devastating capability of Nuclear weapons and as a result they did not use Nuclear weapons. Therefore the arms race (and fear of the consequences of an arms race) outweighed the other de-stabilising factors to a large extent from 1949 to 1963. An important reason why the arms race was a stabilising factor in the Cold war is because it led to Mutually Assured Destruction. This is based on the idea that the existence of massive nuclear arsenals prevented the conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States from devolving into outright war between the superpowers. The arms race helped to keep the war cold because both Kennedy and Khrushchev's administrations knew that due to the massive nuclear stockpiles on each side, outright war between the two sides would result in...
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...The nuclear arms race between the years 1949 and 1962 was a threat to world peace. The main threat to world peace was the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 but there were many other occurrences that made people truly believe that the Cold War could be the end of the world. 1949 is the year that the Soviets tested their first Atomic Bomb on August 29th. This shocked the US Government as they believed that the Soviet nuclear technology was much further behind than it actually was. Unbeknownst to them, the Soviets had spies in America who were giving information about the US’s nuclear technology back to the Soviet scientists. This sped up their Nuclear weapon program. The West were already suspicious of the Soviets; this suspicion played a huge part in the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in April 1949. This was a step towards maintaining world peace. So although there were threats towards World Peace throughout 1949, the formation of NATO encouraged the general public that the Western governments were making sure that Communism wasn’t spreading and World Peace would be maintained. The development of delivery systems also unnerved both sides and threatened World Peace. When Sputnik was launched by the USSR in 1957, the US became nervous. If the Soviets could send a satellite into space, then they should be able to get a nuclear weapon to mainland America. The American public could turn on a radio and hear the beeping noise that Sputnik was transmitting. This scared...
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...To what extent was the nuclear arms race a stabilising factor in the Cold War between 1949 and 1963? (June 2011) The view that the nuclear arms race was a stabilising factor in the Cold War between 1949 and 1963 is a view that should be viewed as correct as the stabilising factors outweigh the de-stabilising factors because a nuclear weapon was never used aggressively. It allowed the Cold War to be just that, a Cold War, and not one of direct aggression between the USSR and the United States. Despite this, the anxiety of both nations increased drastically and there were also de-stabilising factors such as the pressure of domestic politics and the fear of each other from both nation’s publics. Also, the ‘hot wars’ in Korea and Vietnam show that indirect aggression remained. Moreover, Mutually Assured Destruction, or MAD, shows how the nuclear arms race was much more a stabilising factor than a de-stabilising one. There were many de-stabilising factors that occurred due to the nuclear arms race. The secrecy of the two countries was a major issue as it led to constant beliefs that one was in front of the other. An example of this is the ‘missile gap’ of 1957 that led to many Americans believing they were behind Russia in the arms race and therefore pressurised the increased development of nuclear missiles therefore costing the U.S a lot of money. This also shows de-stabilisation as it meant that the missile stockpiles continued to unnecessarily increase therefore unnecessarily...
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...In the book The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy, Hoffman focuses on the arms race during the Cold War, and the events that led up to finally bringing it to an end. Hoffman’s book also goes into detail about the secret decisions and motives the United States and the Soviet Union had during the Cold War. Hoffman also draws in top secret documents deep within Kremlin, interviews, and memoirs from both the Soviet Union and the United States, which he introduces the soldiers, scientist, diplomats, and spies all witnessed the world going towards what was thought as a complete disaster. From this, the author draws in the official leaders and their influence in the Cold War during that time, telling stories of President Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev, and others who fought to bring the arms race and the Cold War to an end. The author’s purpose for writing this book was that he wanted to deliver a narrative how the arms race during the Cold War officially came to an end, along with explaining the...
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...The nuclear arms did little to restrain the actions of the USA and the soviet union in the cold war in the years of 1949-63? On the surface, it can be argued to a partial extent that the arms race did restrain the actions of the USA and the USSR due to the fact that both leaders had mutual understanding of the impact that nuclear weapons would have on both nations, therefore, they couldn't condemn their nations to that sort of destruction.The establishment of MAD was an attempt of both nations to restrain the use of arms race. However, the fact that nuclear weapons were been produced at a rapid pace means that there was still underlying fear that one nation would use the weapon against the other which highlights that arms race did little to restrain the arm to a partial extent. On one hand, it can seem that both leaders, Khrushchev and Eisenhower felt that the prospect of nuclear war was too terrifying, thus, we can argue that nuclear weapons played as a deterrence as both nations could not condemn their nations to nuclear annihilation. For example, the USA detonated their first hydrogen bomb on the first of November 1952 on Enwetak and this created a cloud of 100 miles and 25 miles high, killing every species near it, this highlights the destructive force of a weapon. The fact that the USA did not intervene during the Hungary crisis in 1956, even though, it would have been an beneficial for them as they would have had a democratic nation in a soviet sphere of influence...
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...of the US in 1953, Eisenhower and Dulles (Vice president) adopted a new policy known as ‘Brinkmanship’ which was also related the ‘New Look’ and ‘Rollback’. He intended to cut conventional forces and become more dependent on nuclear weapons, which as according to Dulles made the enemy suffer more than they can possible gain. This was known as massive retaliation could be seen as dividing the superpowers further as it meant the Soviet’s needed to compete in order to defend themselves. However, these policies could be seen as helping issues such as the Tawain Straits Crisis in 1954 in which it has been argued that the presence of nuclear weapons stopped the Chinese interfering. Essentially, the introduction of nuclear weapons spurred the arms race and led to further divisions between the superpowers. After the death of Stalin in 1953, new leaders, Khrushchev and Malenkov indicated that he wanted to make changes between the fundamental issues that divided the east and west. Therefore, In 1955 a summit in Geneva was held between Eisenhower Bulganin (Soviet Foreign Minister), in order to discuss peaceful use of aztomic power, disarmament and an open skies policy. Although many spoke of the ‘spirit of Geneva’, highlighting the...
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...still a world champion not just because of his experience and amount of training, but also due to the fact that he is very consistent on the water. His consistent blade heights allows him for an early catch, which allows him to take full advantage of a stroke. In the 2012 olympics, Mahe finished first with a close 3/4 length lead to 30 year old Czech Republic single sculler Ondřej Synek. ! ! ! Preparation! To prepare going up the slide, the performer should be sat at the finish with both legs extended, body slightly leaning back. Both oars should be drawn into the chest feathered. ! ! ! Execution! Blade height can only be judged during the recovery phase. Therefore the recovery phase starts with the full extension of the arms, pushing the oars away from the body. Then, the performer should lean the body forward, past the vertical. Blades should already be off the water then, and the blade height should be kept consistent, back should be straight, and rocked over. While still maintaining the blade heights, move up to quarter slide by bending your legs, start moving towards to the...
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...Should Government Limit the Military Spending? There is a product, each country only have one. To buy it, everybody in this country should dig their pocket. This product is named military spending. With the large amounts of research and the development of high technology weapons, regional warming of local wars, armed conflicts, and intensified arms race, the series of a new arms race, military deployment and new high-growth military spending boost are being performed on the international stage. However, governments are concerned about seeking “peace via war”. As the arms trade is the major cause of suffering for human beings, governments should limit their military spending; nobody in the world wants war. Under such rhetoric combined with powerful lobbying of the military industries, governments are intentionally aiding military, because the military spending is an important indicator to reflect the dimension of a country’s military strength, and also a major factor of the military strength. As it is a serious issue in the world and so important for every country, every country values this issue as a primary one and pay special attention on it. As each country has different situation and government systems, there are different views towards military spending. Some people suggest increasing the military spending while some people suggest governments to cut the military spending. Some people think that government should keep increasing the military spending...
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...To what extent did the nuclear arms race make the world a more dangerous place in the years 1949-63 The cold war brought about an arms race that increased in pace as the years went on, in this instance we speak of danger to mean having a significant impact on the lives of many people throughout the world through the use of nuclear arms. The world was endangered in many ways by the conflict between the Soviets and the US, as new technology was successfully developed not only did the number of atomic weapons increase but the warheads became more powerful and could reach their targets more effectively. It was however arguable that as a result of this new destructive power that the danger actually abated slightly due to the introduction of Mutually Assured Destruction “MAD” This meant that it became more and more unlikely that either side would actually attack the other due to the effect that it would have on themselves in the form of a counter strike. In 1945 the destructive power of the atomic bomb was showcased to the world, as well as bringing the Second World War to an end it also demonstrated the might of the US to the Soviets. It sparked a competition for each side to have the edge, feeling threatened, either force strived to outcompete the other and have the majority of atomic weapons of the highest plausible power. They wished to demonstrate their power to the world, more bombs meant an advanced economy and extensive resources. The side with more powerful weapons...
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...HOW THE FIRST NUCLEAR AGE STARTED AND HOW IT ENDED Introduction Nuclear, the most powerful energy fuel on earth has been discover on 8th November 1895 by Wilhelm Röntgen when he accidently discover X-ray. According to Njolstand Olav in the Nobel prize website “The real Nuclear age started in 1939 when the President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt received a letter from physicist Albert Einstein and his Hungarian colleague Leo Szilard, calling to his attention the prospect that a bomb of unprecedented power could be made by tapping the forces of nuclear fission, just after the outbreak of World War II in Europe.” (Njølstad, 2003) This was a turning point in the beginning of the development of nuclear weapons in the world. After the first atomic bomb exploded in 1945, many countries in the world have been competing with each other to develop these weapons systems. The earliest countries to blow up nuclear weapons after the U.S. was the Soviet Union and followed by Britain, France and others. The existence of the nuclear weapon become the most powerful deterrence tool in the cold war between two ideologies. The collapse of the communist ideology in many communist country in the world, it is the signed of the end of cold war and the end of the first nuclear age. The First Nuclear Age Concerned with the ability of the Nazi Germany to produce the super weapon at that time, the President of the US in collaboration with Britain has ordered an ongoing research project...
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...Germany and Great Britain participated in an arms race, albeit a friendly competition. In 1910, 4 years before the war, Germany had spent around 30 million pounds of their army and Great Britain spent a little less than 30 million on theirs (Document C). However, Great Britain still was in the lead when it came to their navy, as they spent over 90 millions pounds while Germany had a navy that cost just short of 80 million pounds (Document C). Because of the increase in military spending, it’s reasonable if tensions between Germany and Great Britain evolves from a friendly arms race into a competition to see who actually will create a stronger fighting force. In a speech from Bernhard von Bulow to the German congress, he proposed that Germany “will only be able to keep [itself] at the fore if we realize that there is no welfare for us without power, without a strong army and a strong fleet” (Document D). In other words, he is trying to persuade the German government to increase funding on the military so that Germany can defeat its competitor, Great Britain, in the arms...
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