[Reader-list] US Dominating Global Arms Bazaar

[A. Mani]

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US Dominating Global Arms Bazaar



Yohannan Chemarapally



ACCORDING to the latest data released by American official sources, US
arms sales worldwide have significantly increased this year. The
annual survey by the US Congressional Research Survey (CRS) revealed
that American arms manufacturers had sold weaponry worth a staggering
66.3 billion dollars. Most of the arms went to client nations situated
in the volatile West Asian region. The CRS survey put the US far ahead
of other major arms exporters like Russia, France and China. The CRS,
which is a policy research arm of the US Congress, said in it annual
report that the US led “in arms transfer agreements worldwide, making
agreements valued at 66.3 billion dollars” in 2011.



US FAR SURPASSES

OTHERS IN ARMS SALE

Washington was responsible for 77 per cent of all the arms agreement
signed globally last year. As much as 21.4 billion dollars more of US
weapons sales were registered in 2011 than in the year before that.
Russia only accounted for 5.6 per cent of the global arms sales last
year. President Vladimir Putin has said that Russian arms sales in the
first half of 2012 had crossed the 6.5 billion dollars mark. This was
14 per cent more than it was in the corresponding period last year.
States like India, which till recently imported most of its defence
hardware from Russia, are now turning towards the US and the West.



In 2011, Russia accounted for more than 50 per cent of India’s arms
imports. In the last decade the figure hovered around 80 per cent. But
Russia has found new markets in Latin America and other parts of the
world. Moscow has even bagged new orders for military hardware from
Iraq. A deal worth 4.2 billion dollars was signed in October with the
Iraqi government, making Russia the second biggest supplier of arms to
the country after the US. Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, was one of the
biggest recipients of Russian weaponry. Russia is also the main
supplier of weaponry to embattled Syria. Algeria and Iran are the
other countries that buy significant amounts of Russian armaments.
After the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi, the lucrative Libyan arms market
is now being monopolised by the West.



The US has already clinched deals worth more than 6.9 billion dollars
with India and still more lucrative contracts are in the pipeline.
Taiwan brought the American Patriot anti-missile batteries for more
than two billion dollars. Beijing has angrily criticised this
particular sale, saying that it would only add to the tensions in the
region. China is embroiled in territorial disputes over marine
boundaries with many of its neighbours. Arms dealers around the world
are using the rising military tensions to increases sales in Southeast
Asian countries like Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia.
China has been peacefully seeking reunification with Taiwan since
1949.



TURMOIL IN WEST ASIS,

RISE IN WEAPONS SALES

Andrew Shapiro, the US Assistant Secretary of State for
Political-Military Affairs, told the US media in late August that 2012
“is already a record breaking year for foreign military sales. We have
already surpassed 50 billion dollars in sales in fiscal year 2012.”
The fiscal year in the US ended in September. The bulk of the American
weaponry went to developing nations. However, the earnings from the
sale of military hardware is estimated to only around one-eleventh of
the total American defence spending that will be around 766 billion
dollars.



More than half of the money from the defence deals has come from the
wealthy Gulf monarchies of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates
(UAE). The Saudis have placed orders for 84 advanced F-15 fighters,
Apache and Black Hawk helicopters and other sophisticated weaponry.
The UAE chose to invest 3.5 billion dollars in a missile defence
system --- the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence manufactured by
Lockheed Martin. It is being touted as an advanced anti-missile
shield. The dramatic rise in the sales of US made weaponry comes at a
time when the region is witnessing political and military turmoil.
Pro-western monarchies are feeling threatened by the Arab Spring.
Together with the West, they had succeeded in confining “regime
change” syndrome to the Arab countries that were under civilian,
albeit authoritarian control. But now the forces unleashed by the Arab
Spring have impacted on most of the monarchies, especially Bahrain,
Morocco and Jordan. American arms have gone a long way in bolstering
these regimes.



Saudi Arabia has been helping the beleaguered Bahraini monarchy in
crushing the pro-democracy movement there. The Obama administration
also announced in the middle of this year that it was going to resume
arms sales to the Kingdom of Bahrain. The US had signed a 53 million
dollars arms deal with the country in 2011 but had not yet implemented
the agreement following protests from some American lawmakers. The
deal included the sale of Humvee combat vehicles, missiles and rocket
launchers. Human Rights Watch (HRW) had issued a statement criticising
the American decision to supply weaponry at a time when the kingdom
was witnessing the “continued deterioration” of the human rights
situation.



In Syria, the sophisticated weaponry supplied by the US to Saudi
Arabia and Qatar have been given to the armed groups fighting against
Syria, one of the last secular governments left in the region. The
bogey of a “nuclear” Iran has also been used to whip up a fear
psychosis among the pro-western regimes in the region.



ISRAEL: THE MOST

MILITARISED NATION

The fact that Israel is leading the chorus for an all out war against
Iran has not stopped the Saudi elite from viewing Teheran as the main
strategic threat to their interests. The amount of weaponry sold to
Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries is estimated to be more than six
times the military budget of Iran. US officials have told the media
that it was the policy goal of the Obama administration to work with
America’s allies in the Gulf in building a regional missile defence
system that would protect them from the threat of an Iranian attack.
America’s wealthy allies in the region are picking up the huge tab
involved in assembling a missile shield on a country by country basis.



In the latest Globalisation Militarisation Index (GMI) report released
by the Bonn International Centre for Conversion (BICC), Israel
occupies the top spot as the world’s most militarised nation. Israel
which seems to be all set to launch another military attack on the
hapless people of Gaza has been topping the GMI list almost every time
for the last 20 years. The second place is occupied by Singapore,
another close military ally of the West. The city state has also been
occupying the runners-up position for many years now. Iran which
Israel is trying to paint as a threat to its survival and world peace
only occupies the 34th position.



Six of the nations in the GMI’s list of top ten militarised countries
are located in the volatile West Asian region. They include Syria
(position 3), Jordan (position 5), Kuwait (position 8), Bahrain
(position 8) and Saudi Arabia (position 10). This is conclusive
evidence that the West Asian region continues to be the most
militarised region in the world. Iran’s neighbour Azerbaijan, which is
now very close militarily to the West, occupies the eighth position.
The energy rich country seems to have used a lot of its oil and gas
revenue to buy modern military equipment mainly from the West. The
arms contagion seems to be spreading from West Asia to yet another
energy rich and politically sensitive region — Central Asia.
Azerbaijan and Armenia had fought a brief war after the collapse of
the Soviet Union for the control of the Nagorno Karabakh enclave.
Azerbaijan lost that war. It may have started preparations for another
round.



India and China which have been both significantly increasing their
defence budgets are ranked 71 and 82 respectively. The US was ranked
at 29. Sub-Saharan African and Latin American countries figure low in
the GMI list. Only Angola, flush with oil revenues, is an exception
figuring 30th on the list. The civil war there was over more than a
decade ago but the country faces a secessionist threat in its oil rich
Gabinda province on the border with Congo.



The BICC is funded by the German federal government. The GMI defines
the degree of militarisation of a country by comparing military
expenditures with the gross domestic product and other indicators,
such as the budgetary allocations for health and education. The GMI
analysis is also based on the data put out by the Stockholm Peace
Research Institute (SIPRI), the IMF and the World Health Organisation.






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