The Erosion of Restraint in West German Arms Transfer Policy

The left-to-center government coming to power in the FRG in 1969 adopted a comparatively restrictive arms export policy. In the 1970s, restrictions were lifted step-by-step. The analysis of this process focuses on polity and politics of arms transfer policy. Arms transfer policy became split. There was a level of publicly proclaimed restrictions, a level of bureaucratic policy and a level of actual licensing arms exports. The arms industry was increasingly able to shape the political discourse, especially through the use of the argument of creating employment in economically difficult times. At the same time, the popular opposition against arms transfers to the Third World, which had led to the initial restrictiveness, lost its influence on political decision-making. Such split policies, and the use of concepts fraught with ideology seem to be more general phenomena in national politics of arms transfer restrictions.