Main Directions of Research in the Arms Trade

Research in arms transfers over the past decades has greatly increased our knowledge, but in a somewhat uneven fashion. With the end of the Cold War, arms transfers take place in a new international system. It appears that the most useful research at this stage—and given the limitations on the quantitative information available—should involve factual description of the different stages of arms transfers, the parties, their interests, the legal aspects, and the mechanics of arms transfers; harder information on the economic aspects of arms transfers, including the effects of offsets, of transfer of technology, and of joint development and production; identification of general trends and of characteristics relevant to more general concepts; and elaboration of ways and means to bring arms transfers under better national and international control. Perhaps most important, researchers should show detachment, devoting their efforts more to establishing facts than to presenting opinions.