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The World ls an Armed Camp
r4(.
N
ever belore in human
history have conditions
existed that better lulfill
Joel's prophecy:
" Beat your plowshares
into swords, and your
pruninghooks into spears: let
the weak say,
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am strong"
(Joel 3: 10).
Note the prophecy has
two parts. First there is an
explosive growth in
weapons: second, this
growth allows the weak to
become strong. Today's
incredible arms trade
involving the weaker Third
World countries matches the
condition described by
Joel almos! exactly.
The worldwide arms trade
has indeed been explosive.
Worldwide arms exports
zoomed 60 percent in the
decade 1966-76, and took
off at a 25 percent
per year
clip in the last hall of the
1970s. More than $20 billion
of arms are traded
worldwide. The official
figures may even be on the
low side because sorne of
the arms trade is hidden in
civilian export statistics.
Besides the great quantity
of weapons now traded
worldwide, quality is up also.
Middle Eastern countries are
buying the very lates!
weapons-and now are
actually financing the
research and development
of those weapons. In one
recen! deal, France sold
certain missiles before they
December 1981
were even available to its
own navy!
The major arms producers
are, ol course, the major
industrial countries (with the
notable exception ol Japan).
The United States leads the
pack, with 39 percent of the
trade, followed by the Soviet
Union. France, West
Germany and the United
Kingdom. Together. the two
superpowers. the United
States and the Soviet Union,
account for 70 percent of
the world commerce in arms.
But if the two
superpowers domínate the
market, the Western and
Central European countries
are aggressively pushing
counlry in lhe world is
·~
their own export programs.
rapidly acquiring weapons
French arms exports, lor
better than !hose used by
example, more !han
the superpowers even a lew
quadrupled in the period
years ago, efforts to stop
1968 to 1977.
the trend seem lutile. Ouring
And who buys? In a word, the Carter administration,
many countries that can't
afford it. Third World
countries buy about tour
fifths of all arms traded in
world commerce-the same
countries, which, according
to a U.N. report, spend six
times more on arms than
they do on public health .
While it seems every
the United States made a
strong effort to cut down
world arms trade by
restricting sales to nations
with allegedly poor human
rights records. lt didn't work.
Those nations turned
ª
elsewhere-the Soviet
·!!
1
Union, Europe, even Israel.
5
The policy didn't even cut
~
the flow ol U.S. arms
..: exports! A few years alter
Presiden! Carter had
~
announced his desire to
~
:¡¡
curb the world arms trade,
~
his administration witnessed
:t
near record levels (only the
hall of U.S. arms to lran
alter the revolution there
prevented new records) .
A typical pattern finds
Western Europe stepping in
.. when the United States
~
tries to halt the flow of its
C/)
•
~
arms. Thus, tn the years
~
alter World War 11, when
.()
.
~
the Untted States refused
to let Latín American
governments buy jet
fighters, European
producers were willing.
When the Soviet Union
refused to sell Egypt better
quality arms, Europe
likewise filled the demand.
The world's major arms
sellers are simply on a
treadmill which they can't
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