Abstract
From 1980 the armaments performance of the USA and the USSR, as measured by expenditures, diverged to a degree seldom observed in the post-war period. Although in the broadest sense the armaments policies of one country are dominated by that of the adversary1 the departure — first established in each country in the final years of the previous decade — from long term trends, renders inadequate simple action-reaction and bureaucratic models of the arms race. In President Reagan’s first administration, military expenditure grew at an annual nominal rate of 14 per cent, in real terms 8 real terms p.a. By the end of his second administration, however, real growth was negative. In the Soviet Union expenditures declined from a long term trend of four to five p.a. to two per cent p.a. to the middle of the decade and perhaps beyond.2
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Notes and References
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© 1990 R. T. Maddock
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Maddock, R.T. (1990). The Arms Race in the 1980s. In: The Political Economy of the Arms Race. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-09842-2_9
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