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Arms and Future Wars
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17035 |
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BOOK WORLD
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| Issue
Date : |
8 / 1990 |
1,703 Words |
| Author
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Herbert E. Meyer
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ENGINES OF WAR
James Adams
New York: The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1990
307 pp., $19.95
The Cold War has been (or, if you're an optimist, was) a terribly damaging conflict. Countries lost their freedom, and countless people their lives. The Cold War cost the West an incalculable amount of money for defense against the communists.
In Engines of War, James Adams, defense correspondent for the Sunday Times of London, reports an on another result of the Cold War, one that is likely to demand attention in the years to come: the enormous arsenals of weapons now extant. It is Adams' thesis that while the end of the Cold War is obviously a great thing, we are by no means out of danger. In coming years we will be vulnerable to injury from the weapons now in the hands of violent and irresponsible groups, along with the new weapons that the thriving arms industry plans to sell in the next few years to whoever has the money to purchase them.
Looking back on communism's watershed year of 1989, Adams writes:
To even the most cynical Cold War warriors all these changes are for the good. Anything, after all, that reduces tension between East and West should be welcomed. Less tension means less chance of nuclear war. Aside from reducing tension, this rapprochement should mean that fewer arms are required, but arms dealers are confident that this will not be so.
Steady Arms Market Predicted
Arms producers are predicting a fairly steady market for the next five years, which will be followed by a sharp increase as new weapons currently in the development stage reach an expanded market. It appears to them that the arms business remains relatively unaffected by the prospects of superpower peace. Conflict is taking different forms, from terrorism to more regional conflicts, and weapons will continue to be in demand.
When Adams talks about arms producers, he means more than just those shady characters encountered in novels who manufacture weapons in unmarked buildings on the outskirts of town and meet their customers in sleazy bars or airport motels. He means Western governments as well:
As a high premium is now placed on exports to earn foreign currency and maintain jobs, governments have become directly and openly involved in the arms manufacturing and sales process. More important, however, exports also help fund the research and development into new weapons that allow a country to maintain an indigenous arms producing infrastructure to keep a place in the club of arms exporters.
Losing a place at that table is not simply a matter of status and money. Arms mean power. Arms exports bring influence far outside the defense arena. The country that buys guns may also be inclined to buy grain, and to provide diplomatic support for the arms supplier in forums such as the United Nations.
Engines of War properly spreads the blame
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