Arms Procurement

Process by which an organization (usually a government) acquires an entire range of weapons and military technology for the purposes of defense against perceived threats or as part of a wider war-preparation operation. Arms procurement is a natural by-product of human conflict: When confronted with a threat, people tend to seek to protect themselves by amassing weaponry, from spears and arrows in ancient times to nuclear technology today.

Throughout history, all governments have been involved in some way or another in arms-procurement processes, whether through domestic production of weaponry or acquisition from abroad. The extent to which countries engage in arms procurement depends on many factors, such as threat perceptions, national security doctrines, historical precedents, financial prowess, domestic stability, technological development, and domestic policies. In addition, major world events, such as the two world wars, the Cold War, and the September 11 terrorist attacks, greatly influence the manner in which the world's states conceive of and execute the production and acquisition of weaponry.

The Cold War

The Cold War was responsible for perhaps the most intense arms race in history. Both sides—the Eastern bloc, led by the Soviet Union, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), led by the United States—continuously sought to acquire sophisticated weaponry that would allow them to protect their territories and exert influence on the world stage.

Within this overarching Cold War, smaller “hot” conflicts were frequently fought between rival countries and military organizations in Asia and Africa. Each of these contenders also sought to acquire the arms it needed to protect its interests. Often, these rivals aligned themselves ideologically with either the Soviet Union or the United States, simply to establish arms-procurement links with the superpowers. As a result, during the Cold War, most of the world's countries became more militarized than ever, and the weapons industry developed at an extremely rapid pace.

The thousands of nuclear missiles that the United States and the Soviet Union built to deter each other during the Cold War cost both nations trillions of dollars. As much as half of the Soviet Union's gross domestic product (GDP) was spent on defense, ultimately provoking an implosion of the communist regime. More than a decade after the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia and the United States (as well as other countries) continue to spend billions of dollars simply securing, maintaining, or destroying parts of the nuclear arsenal built during the Cold War.

Reorganization

The end of the Cold War drastically changed the international defense climate and, with it, the arms-procurement processes undertaken by most of the world's countries. Both the international supply of and demand for weapon systems were affected by the political transformations to which the fall of the Soviet Union gave rise.

For one, the end of the dizzying arms race between Russia and the United States resulted in governments devoting less funds to the research and development operations of the military industry. This, in turn, triggered a decrease in the production of weapons by these states. On the other hand, the administrative and political chaos that engulfed the former Soviet Union after 1992 allowed numerous enterprisers to commercialize parts of the immense military arsenal deposited throughout that country. As a result, many Soviet weapon systems (from simple rifles to complex missile technology) found their way to countries with aspirations of becoming military superpowers.

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