Briefing

Arms

Death race

From Socialist Review, No. 177, July/August 1994.
Copyright © Socialist Review.
Copied with thanks from the Socialist Review Archive.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.

The global number of conflicts rose rapidly in 1991 and 1992. Eleven major new wars broke out, setting an all time record of 29 major wars. Deaths resulting from these wars were the highest for 17 years and have reached a massive 6 million.
Our leaders tell us that we have been living in peaceful times since the Second World War. In fact there have been 149 wars with a total of 23,142,000 people killed. On an average yearly basis, the number of deaths in this period has been twice the number of deaths in the 19th century.
The five acknowledged nuclear powers still hold 26,700 nuclear weapons. After all existing commitments for the reduction of nuclear weapons have been met, the nuclear stockpiles of these five nations still hold more than 900 times the explosive powers expended in the Second World War – equivalent to 9,700,000,000 tons of TNT. The nuclear stockpile provides 1.8 tons of explosive power for every person on earth. That is enough explosive to blow the world up several times over.
Since the end of the Cold War there has been a small fall in Nato’s military expenditure. In 1992 expenditure fell 10 percent below the spending peak of 1987, but in real terms it is still one third higher than before the big spending of the 1980s. In May 1993 Nato actually called for a halt to reductions in military expenditure amongst its member states.
The former USSR has reduced spending on the military dramatically since 1990. By 1992 the military budget had slipped to about half the level five years earlier.
The two superpowers have reduced their nuclear weapons from 23,615 in 1987 to 17,890 in 1992, a drop of 24 percent. This has mainly been in tactical nuclear weapons due to the expense of ‘cleaning up’ intercontinental ballistic missiles.
World military expenditure fell by 8 percent between 1987 and 1991. In the developing countries there was a modest fall in 1990. Since then there has been a steady increase in spending primarily in the Middle East, which dominates the arms market (especially Saudi Arabia) and the Far East (China and the newly industrialising economies of the Pacific rim). In these Far Eastern countries there are all the signs of a new arms race.
The ‘clean up’ of nuclear weapons by the superpowers is estimated to cost more than the production costs of the weapons in the first place. The cost of nuclear weapons in the United States from 1946 to 1993 was $5.54 trillion.
Since the end of the Gulf War exports of weapons to developing countries initially rose sharply. Most of these weapons were from the US which in 1991 took over from the former USSR as the world’s leading weapons exporter. After the Gulf War there was agreement amongst the Big Five nations to curb sales of weapons to the Middle East. The opposite has happened.
Even though stockpiles of weapons are decreasing globally there is an emphasis on the ‘modernisation’ of weapons. There are more high technology weapons that supposedly encompass greater accuracy, range, velocities, rates of fire, armour, penetration, automation and destructiveness. So there is less overall weaponry but more effective killing power.
In the Gulf War precision guided weapons accounted for less than 10 percent of the munitions dropped by the allies but accounted for 75 percent of the damage.
There might be lower expenditure but with small weapons there is higher proliferation as the arms market is flooded with cheap surplus weapons from the former USSR and Eastern Europe. Many of the weapons in the Balkans are from this surplus as well as from Western countries.
Britain is a leading arms exporter – £1,506 million worth of military equipment was exported in 1992. Government approved arms exporting is shrouded in secrecy. A government organisation called the Defence Export Services Organisation is responsible for procurement for the Ministry of Defence. Not even MPs are told what is being sold, and to whom, for reasons of ‘commercial confidentiality’. This contravenes the 1991 UN agreement to establish an arms transfer register for public scrutiny.
Timothy Renton, then a Foreign Office minister, said in November 1986, ‘We do not supply arms to countries against which there is a mandatory arms embargo, or where we believe the items are likely to be used to violate human rights or to attack British forces or our allies.’ This is a lie.
Despite strict policy Britain exported tank parts, radar and three naval craft to Iran during the Iran-Iraq War, and military Land Rovers and radar to Iraq.
Britain will export weapons anywhere in the world. Applications for exporting equipment are dealt with on a ‘case by case basis.’
Over half of British arms exports go to the Middle East. In 1988 £10,000 million worth of military equipment was sent to Saudi Arabia. Britain’s other large customers include India and Nigeria. The cost of one British Aerospace Hawk is equivalent to clean water for life for 1.5 million people.
Some equipment from Britain is directly used for repressive purposes. British built armoured cars were sent to Indonesia to break up protests and have killed many. Around 200,000 people have been killed in East Timor (one third of the population) since 1975 by Indonesian troops using guns and bombs from Britain, such as the British Hawk aircraft.
Computers used by secret police against people in South Africa and Uganda were supplied by Britain.
About 300 private arms dealers operate in London usually dealing in unlicensed arms. This is not illegal as long as weapons are not exported from Britain.
Companies involved with smuggling arms to South Africa without an export licence have often been dealt with leniently. For example, after a massive smuggling operation in 1980 five companies and five individuals paid £193,000 in fines between them for smuggling arms valued at £2 million.
British arms exports are carried out on a commercial basis. The Export Credits Guarantee Department insures the exporters against non-payment by overseas buyers. The Tories were not satisfied that arms exporters were protected enough so in 1988 Alan Clark, trade minister, set up a new £1 billion fund to cover larger military contracts. This is paid for by the tax payer.
International Military Services is a government-wned company used to provide packages of arms to countries. It arranged £2 billion worth of sales to the Shah of Iran and still has an office in Tehran today, despite friction between governments.

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