The Global Arms Race

A concise study of the arms race is important for three reasons: to identify general trends in post-war history; to understand the main causative factors behind the strength and dynamism of the armaments build-up; and to appreciate the implications of developments in the arms race for disarmament and, therefore, conversion. For this specific purpose a number of United Nations reports on the economic and social consequences of the arms race and on the relationship between disarmament and development provide an authoritative source of data and analysis. These reports will be used to examine the main quantitative and qualitative features of the arms race over the last forty years and some analysis, by no means comprehensive, of its causes. Then the relevance of this examination to the structure and content of this book will be summarised.