The Continuing Debate Over U.S. Arms Sales: Strategic Needs and the Quest for Arms Limitations

Arms transfers between sovereign states have become a key and controversial ingredient of international relations. Many historians would argue that American military supplies were instrumental in winning the three critical wars of this century: World War I, World War II, and the Cold War. Critics have advocated increased limits on arms sales on the grounds that they are a cause of war and have led to disastrous, entangling confrontations, including the Vietnam war. The end of the Cold War has witnessed a return to nationalism, not a new world order based on internationalism. The economic pressures to export arms are growing while demand is increasing in the new conflict regions. But many would-be purchasers of advanced arms cannot afford the high costs of modern weaponry. Most regional conflicts today, however, do not use the high-tech wizardry displayed during Desert Storm but rather rely on the traditional instruments of twentieth-century slaughter: small arms, mines, mortars, and artillery.