Military Trade and Aid

Abstract

In addition to the purchase of domestically-produced military equip-ment, the payment of the armed forces and so forth, governments devote a considerable volume of resources to international arms flows. This chapter is concerned with this flow of defence-related resources between the DCs and the nations of the Third World; more specifically, it is concerned with military trade and aid. In theory, trade and aid can easily be distinguished: if goods or services are exchanged at a rate directed by the free operation of the market mechanism (or ‘normal’ commerce), then trade is occurring. Should these terms be modified to give benefits in favour of one participant, over and above those utilities anticipated from normal trading operations, then aid is being transferred from the ‘loser’ to the ‘gainer’. However, as far as the military is concerned, the juxtaposition is not as straightforward as has been outlined above, and this may be seen from the examination of a taxonomy of possible international military transfers.