Ukraine’s integration into the world arms market

Hostilities in eastern Ukraine have highlighted the need for accelerated transformation of Ukrainian armed forces and strengthening country’s defense capabilities. Ukraine is an active consumer and exporter of weapons, so it needs to improve constantly its position in the international arms market, which, by the way, unlike most markets suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, is constantly growing. The study aims to assess the prospects of Ukraine’s integration into the world arms market to secure its armed forces and achieve the highest possible level of arms exports. Methods of comparative analysis and integrated approach were used in the study. The obtained results demonstrated that Ukrainian arms export has fallen dramatically in recent years (from 1501 million USD in 2012 to 115 million USD in 2020); the largest importers were China (36% of Ukraine’s total arms exports), Russia (20%), and Thailand (17%). The main explanation for this is the necessity of transition to more technological weapons. Concerning weapon imports, Turkey, the USA, Great Britain, Poland, and Bulgaria became the main suppliers. It is about ammunition, electronics, including electronic warfare stations, means of communication, sniper rifles, grenade launchers, etc. The study substantiated that Ukraine should implement joint projects with other countries to fully develop its high-tech weapons in accordance with the latest military technologies.

China and Russia Security Cooperation on Arms Exports Toward the US’ Global Hegemony

The purpose of this paper is to analyse China and Russia’s relationship in terms of arms exports between both countries and its implications for the United States (US) using a qualitative method and the conceptual framework of Neorealism: hegemony and security cooperation. China and Russia are two great powers that have maintained close diplomatic ties since the Cold War Era. Both China and Russia cooperate in various sectors, including security. Since the collapse of the SU (USSR), which marked the establishment of post-Cold War Russia, the country has become a major arms exporter to China. This close relationship has dynamically developed in the last few decades. China-Russia security cooperation has been assessed as a security challenge for the US. The security cooperation between China, the new rival for the US since its rising, and Russia, the US’ former superpower rival in the Cold War era, is interpreted as a threat to US domination in the Asia-Pacific. However, this paper concludes that while China and Russia have a close relationship, China can surpass Russia’s military technology. That is why, although these countries relationships are close and Russia does not see China as its primary threat, this does not mean that Russia will let its guard down in facing China’s development. There is a tri-polar power balance between these countries and with the US. The main worry is if two actors get too close, leaving the remaining state isolated. Regardless of the global power equilibrium trajectory, China and Russia will become more closed than the US.

Arms Exports and Export Control of the Dutch Republic 1585–1621

The Dutch Republic underwent a process of state formation, accelerated economic growth and military reforms during the Eighty Years War. In particular between 1585 and 1621, Dutch merchant-entrepreneurs built up a burgeoning arms industry and sector of arms exports. These exports required a system of passports, still an under-researched theme in current literature, organized by the States-General and admiralties in order to support exports to neutral and allied states, but to forestall these did not fall into enemy hands. In particular, the system of passports shows how merchants, acting as intermediaries between allies and the States-General and the admiralties, could meet the volatile demand of war materials. As a result, the supply side of the export market was oligopolistic, but the composition of the group of oligopolists varied depending on the region and the prevailing market conditions in question. From this study it can be concluded that the system of export control had only a limited effectiveness regarding the creative arms exports to Spanish Habsburg destinations, due to divergent central and local interests. However, the major part of the Dutch arms exports flowed to allies such as France, Venice, Sweden and the German protestant states. Dutch merchants provided them with batches of strategic materials and total package-deals of armaments for entire army and navy units. From 1621, the States-General supported these transactions by supplying war materials from the state arsenals fostering timely and largescale deliveries, meeting volatile demand conditions.

Arming a few dictators but not others: The politics of UK arms sales to Chile (1973–1989) and Argentina (1976–1983)

The United Kingdom imposed an arms embargo on Chile in 1974 but not on Argentina after the 1976 coup, despite brutal military dictatorships in both countries. What explains this difference? What can this difference reveal about the determinants of government decisions regarding arms exports? Using mainly archival evidence, this article demonstrates that this difference is explained by a stronger advocacy network in the United Kingdom campaigning on Chile, which was largely due to a greater identification of the British left with the Chilean struggle. The hub of this network was the Chile Solidarity Campaign, which mediated the influence of the transnational anti-Pinochet movement on the UK government. These findings suggest that shared values or identities make transnational issues more likely to resonate with domestic audiences. Evidence also indicates the importance of activists’ connections with gatekeepers, focus on specific arms deals, and demonstrated causal chains between arms exports and repression.

Transnational Activism and Domestic Politics: Arms Exports and the Anti-Apartheid Struggle in the UK–South Africa Relations (1959–1994)

ABSTRACT In 1964, the UK government imposed an arms embargo on South Africa, which it maintained until the end of the white minority rule. What explains this embargo? Using mainly archival evidence, this paper demonstrates that domestic political dynamics in the United Kingdom mediated the influence of the transnational anti-apartheid and anti-colonial struggles on the British government. The United Kingdom imposed and maintained this embargo due in part to a domestic advocacy network, whose hub was the Anti-Apartheid Movement. The paper provides a comprehensive explanation of an important issue in British foreign policy, the anti-colonial struggle, and Southern Africa's history. There are theoretical implications for foreign policy analysis concerning the role of advocacy networks, interactions between local and global activism, the role of political parties’ ideology and contestation, the effects on foreign policy of changes in a normative environment, the effects of norm contestation, and normative determinants of sanctions.

The Comparative Legitimacy of Arms Exports - A Conjoint Experiment in Germany and France

Despite fierce politicization and heated public debates in arms-exporting democracies, systematic research on mass public preferences on arms trade is lacking. Combining political economy models of arms trade with the literatures on trade preferences and foreign policy attitudes, we argue that citizens trade off economic incentives, strategic interests and moral considerations when assessing arms trade and that deeply rooted `strategic cultures’ lead to differences in citizen preferences between countries. To derive the implicit weighting of different features of arms trade, we draw on population-representative conjoint survey experiments (N=6,617), fielded in November/December 2020 in two of the global top-5 exporting countries of major arms: Germany and France. We find that both country populations show structured preferences towards arms exports which predominantly center around their moral repercussions. However, German respondents place more weight on moral consequences and, compared to French respondents, a larger share is in fundamental opposition. We conclude that these diverging preferences potentially conflict with plans of a common European defense and security policy.

Swiss Defence Industry in the Global Arms Trade – Successes and Challenges

When we talk about the Defence Industry (DI), arms transfers, and military expenditures we mostly refer to data accumulated by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). In the SIPRI Top 20 list of largest exporters of major arms for 2019, small states hold consecutive positions: Israel takes 8th place, Switzerland is 13th, and Sweden, Norway, and Belarus place 15th, 17th, and 20th respectively. The author analyses the Swiss DI case due to several reasons; its place in SIPRI Top, its sharp rise of Swiss arms exports in the recent year, its Swiss neutrality strategy, the country’s multilingual society, and its all-government approach to the arms industry, though still contributing to the limited scholarly studies on contemporary Swiss DI. This paper aims to explore Swiss DI and its strategies, to identify the country’s defence and security policy influence towards DI, and to discuss the Swiss DI stance and future perspectives in the context of the global arms trade. At the same time, this paper also highlights Swiss DI successes and failures that could be of significant use to other small states aiming to develop or enhance their relevant DIs.

Dip in Russian arms exports will pass after pandemic

Headline RUSSIA: Dip in arms exports will pass after pandemic

The financial condition of corporations of the Russian defense-industrial complex, which are included in the TOP lists of the largest military companies in the world

Research background: Over the recent period, new “players” have appeared on the world arms and military equipment markets as large exporters, which were previously positioned as large importers of weapons. As international experience shows, in order to become a global exporter of weapons and military equipment, one needs to create powerful military companies. Russian defense companies occupy high places in various TOP lists, which provides the country with a stable position in the export markets. An analysis of the financial condition of these companies makes it possible to deepen the assessment of the prospects for Russian arms exports. The authors have repeatedly addressed the topic of Russian arms exports and the place of Russia in the global arms and military equipment trade markets. Purpose of the article: The main goal of the study is to analyze the current financial standing of the leading Russian defense industry companies, which ensure the country’s stable positions in global export markets. Methods: Generalizations of the research are based on the processing and systematization of data obtained from available information sources. By analyzing the statistics, the authors were able to deduce the trends of the current moment and determine the prospects. Findings & Value added: Consideration of the financial condition of backbone enterprises of the Russian defense industry enabled the authors to make an educated guess about what the prospects for Russia hold high positions in the global markets of AME.