Changing relationships between armaments production and exports and state defense expenditures

Abstract

The present study is relevant, because in different countries of the world in recent years there have been ambiguous dynamics among armaments and military equipment production and exports and changes in state defense expenditures. Modern geopolitical conflicts distort the existing picture of interrelations between the above parameters, and the article assesses their changes. In particular, as the study result, the underlying hypotheses on the relationships between supply and demand in the global market of armaments and military equipment have been formulated. The key countries analysis showed that the dynamics of indicators in them is determined by different reasons, but the author came to the conclusion that the main factors of changes in the trends of armaments production and exports and defense expenditures are the following: the expansion of illegal circulation of armaments and military equipment in some countries, increased vulnerability of some countries and their direct involvement in military-political conflicts, as well as differentiation of countries’ approaches to national security, which causes different attention to defense capabilities and the defense industry development. At the same time, there are almost always sharp changes and volatility of the indicators under consideration during the periods when a country is in the stage of industrialization or transition to a new technological mode.

Keywords

• armaments and military equipment
• military products
• military-industrial complex
• export
• import
• production
• defense spending
• international trade