Who arms War?
A project from the World Peace Foundation.
We examined over 25 years of conflict and arms transfers to find out who sells weapons to war zones.
Here's what we found:
1. Everyone arms war.
All major arms exporting states sold weapons to countries actively at war:
Volume of weapons sent to countries at war, 1990-2018.
See the top arms suppliers to conflict participants.
2. Almost all wars receive arms.
Of the 32 wars this century that we reviewed, all but one received weapons from the world's top exporting countries.
See the flow of arms for each war in our conflict analysis pages.
An example of Major Conventional Weapons transfers to conflict participants, Somalia from 2006 to 2018.
3. Ethical export policy is a myth.
There are no clear cases of top exporters halting arms sales when conflict begins.
On the contrary, several exporters show increased sales to states at war.
See who exports more to countries participating in armed conflict.
4. Money beats morals.
Rather than conflict, the wealth and military spending of a particular country were stronger determinants of whether a given exporter would supply arms to them.
See who exports more to rich countries or to those with higher military spending.
5. Relationships are key.
An established arms supply relationship was one of the most powerful determinants of whether arms transfers would occur, regardless of the recipient’s conflict status.
