Military Expenditure and the Arms Trade: Problems of the Data

Abstract

The theme of this paper is straightforward. The ‘world war industry’, to use Professor Boulding’s useful term, or the world military sector, to use a more formal description, is a very large economic sector. It is true that the main reason for studying it is not economic — it is because within this sector there are powerful forces exacerbating the arms race and increasing the dangers of war. However, the economic characteristics of this sector are not insignificant. This sector consists of the sum total of the resources devoted, not necessarily to defence — the common use of the term ‘Ministry of Defence’ is often a euphemism — but to preparations for the use of force against other states, and sometimes against dissident elements within the country itself.¹