CURRENT TRENDS OF THE WORLD ARMS MARKET AND PROSPECTS FOR SOLVING THE GLOBAL PROBLEM OF PEACE AND DEMILITARIZATION

Abstract

The article summarizes the most important modern tendencies of the global arms market from the author’s point of view, considering opportunities and prospects for finding a solution to global issue of peace and demilitarization. In particular, it is emphasized that an increase in military spending heavily restricts opportunities for reaching sustainable development goals which are formulated by the UN. This correlation is regarded as a lost opportunity to establish continuous progress in social and environmental areas. In the process of analyzing statistic data provided by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on the global production and sales of arms, grouping of data by years was carried out with the calculation of annual growth for the period 2002-2020 and by country of origin in 2020. The diagrams illustrate the dynamics and geographical structure of the arms market and made it possible to determine trends in the dynamics of military production and arms trade of 100 largest companies in the world in this period. The systems approach is used to present a set of aspects of the global problem of peace and demilitarization. The article is primarily concerned with economic aspects, namely the analysis of data on the global arms industry. The dynamics of sales in the last 20 years and a geographical structure of the market are thus described. A conclusion is made about steady annual growth of military spending since 2015, as well as the growth in the volume of production and sales of weaponry, which has proved to be independent from economic fluctuations and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite a corresponding decrease in the general export volume around the world, arms exports have increased. It is also pointed out that modern arms production is concentrated, and the world arms market is monopolized. Most sales are carried out by less than 80 companies in 5 countries and an unprecedentedly high share of sales belongs only one of them – the USA. The influence of private companies’ economic interest in developing the arms industry for profit is assessed as significant. Their activities include the widespread use of all means and methods of marketing to further promote weapons to markets. It is argued that currently there is an increase in the militarization of national economies and the world economy as a whole due to high international tensions in the world. The main reason for the aggravation of international relations is the competition for natural resources and markets for finished products. At the same time, it is noted that the production of weapons is carried out using the latest technologies, which stimulates demand in the world market. It is proposed in further studies to improve the methodology for studying the possibilities of solving this global problem. It is necessary to study not only economic, but also other aspects of the problem of peace and demilitarization.