Third World Arms Production and the Evolving Interstate System

Abstract

This study seeks to uncover what causes a Third World country to begin to produce arms, why some Third World countries produce more weapons than others, and the potential consequences of this production. The findings suggest that a Third World country with a large economy, which has achieved a comparatively advanced role in the world economy and which at one time or another has suffered from an arms embargo, is very likely to be producing a relatively large amount of military weaponry. Within each Third World region a few states are now engaging in arms production to pursue upward political, military, and economic mobility. Given that historically the interstate hierarchy has been maintained, in part, through a monopoly over the means of destruction, indigenous Third World arms production may have wide-ranging consequences for the international system. Indeed, this study concludes that Third World arms production could begin to undermine the military hierarchy of the interstate system.