Arms Transfers

The term arms transfers is used to refer to a wide range of transactions that involve weapons being transferred from one country to another. In some cases, these weapons are bought with cash or credit, but in others, they are provided as part of aid programs or bartered for commodities, such as food and oil. The global trade in weapons spans the range from small arms and light weapons, such as handguns and rifles and their ammunition, to major conventional weapons, such as tanks and fighter aircraft and their associated munitions. The five permanent members of the United Nations (UN) Security Council (nicknamed the “P-5”—the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China) and Germany generally dominate the global trade in major conventional weapons, ...