IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/apsrev/v78y1984i02p297-317_25.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Differential Paths to Parity: A Study of the Contemporary Arms Race

Author

Listed:
  • Ward, Michael Don

Abstract

This article presents a model of arms expenditures and arms accumulation for the Soviet Union and United States from 1952 through 1978. It argues that contemporary superpowers do not react solely to the military budgets of one another in assessing the potential threat against which they must allocate military resources, i.e., in deciding upon the military budget. Rather, they respond primary to the relative balance of strategic and conventional military forces. A continuous time model of this process is developed and estimated. If one examines only the budgets of these two nations, it would appear that no race is occurring; rather, the Soviets are simply increasing their arms expenditures irrespective of what the United States does. However, when one examines the relative stocks of military capabilities, it appears that the USSR is racing to catch up to the United States. Finally, the dynamics governing arms competition between the United States and the USSR appear to be undergoing marked change.

Suggested Citation

  • Ward, Michael Don, 1984. "Differential Paths to Parity: A Study of the Contemporary Arms Race," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 78(2), pages 297-317, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:78:y:1984:i:02:p:297-317_25
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0003055400253574/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Charles H. Anderton, 1989. "Arms Race Modeling," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 33(2), pages 346-367, June.
    2. James D. Morrow, 1989. "A Twist of Truth," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 33(3), pages 500-529, September.
    3. Michael D. Ward & Alex Mintz, 1987. "Dynamics of Military Spending in Israel," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 31(1), pages 86-105, March.
    4. James D. Morrow, 2010. "The Next Wave," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 27(4), pages 299-307, September.
    5. Sean Bolks & Richard J. Stoll, 2000. "The Arms Acquisition Process," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 44(5), pages 580-603, October.
    6. Michael D. McGinnis, 1991. "Richardson, Rationality, and Restrictive Models of Arms Races," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 35(3), pages 443-473, September.
    7. Gary Zuk & Nancy R. Woodbury, 1986. "U.S. Defense Spending, Electoral Cycles, and Soviet-American Relations," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 30(3), pages 445-468, September.
    8. Muhammad Ramzan Sheikh & Muhammad Aslam, 2015. "Is There an Arms Race Between Pakistan and India? An Application of GMM," Lahore Journal of Economics, Department of Economics, The Lahore School of Economics, vol. 20(2), pages 35-51, July-Dec.
    9. Susan G. Sample, 1998. "Military Buildups, War, and Realpolitik," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 42(2), pages 156-175, April.
    10. Gonzalo F-de-Córdoba & José L. Torres, 2016. "National security, military spending and the business cycle," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(4), pages 549-570, August.
    11. Richard J. Stoll, 1992. "Steaming in the Dark?," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 36(2), pages 263-283, June.
    12. Ben D. Mor & Zeev Maoz, 1999. "Learning and the Evolution of Enduring International Rivalries: a Strategic Approach," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 17(1), pages 1-48, February.
    13. Benjamin O. Fordham, 2004. "A Very Sharp Sword," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 48(5), pages 632-656, October.
    14. Michael Don Ward & A. K. Mahajan, 1984. "Defense Expenditures, Security Threats, and Governmental Deficits," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 28(3), pages 382-419, September.
    15. William R. Thompson & Karen A. Rasler, 1988. "War and Systemic Capability Reconcentration," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 32(2), pages 335-366, June.
    16. Rafael Reuveny & John Maxwell, 1998. "Free Trade and Arms Races," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 42(6), pages 771-803, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:78:y:1984:i:02:p:297-317_25. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/psr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.