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No farewell to arms

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60 years ago, when his term as President of the United States of America, was coming to an end, Dwight Eisenhower warned his country of the grave implications of the influence that the military industrial complex (the armaments industry) was having on every aspect of American life. His warning remains more relevant than in 1961. Not just for the USA but for all those countries and companies who export arms and are the major beneficiaries of the arms trade.

“Two thirds of the people of Yemen are in need of assistance. They are suffering not due to a natural calamity but through a man-made war”

President Eisenhower said: “We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry… we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United State corporations. This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.”

He also added that “in the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
 

War is big business

In the last 60 years the power of the military industrial complex has grown much bigger, in the USA and beyond. There are states and companies who run the armaments trade that generates profits, creates jobs and projects hard power among their buyers. The foreign policy of these states serves the interest of this arms trade as they seek more markets, profits and geopolitical influence. They need conflicts and tensions to be able to sell their weapons and the governments themselves become arms dealers castigating as naïve those that seek peace and call for dialogue and negotiations instead of confrontation and conflict.
 
Among the elite establishment the private arms trade sector also lobbies politicians, funds their campaigns, finances foreign policy think tanks and among the people promotes a culture glorifying war and aggression through films and video games. In its 2020 Report ‘Trends in International Arms Transfer’, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) says the volume of international transfers of major arms in 2016–20 was 12 per cent higher than in 2006–10. The five largest arms exporters in the last five years have been the United States, Russia, France, Germany and China.
 
In the same period the five largest arms importers were Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt, Australia and China. Between 2011–15 and 2016–20 there were increases in arms transfers to the Middle East and to Europe, while there were decreases in the transfers to Africa, the Americas, and Asia and Oceania. A US State Department report (February 2020) found that “the United States accounted for 79% of the global arms trade, or an average of $143 billion annually. The European Union was responsible for about 10%, followed by Russia at 5% and China at less than 2%. The United States exported four times more arms around the globe than the next nine countries combined.”
 

According to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons the nine countries that currently possess nuclear weapons: the United States, China, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea collectively spent $72.6 billion in 2020 on modernising their nuclear arsenals. But the world leaders did not find the required $50 billion to bring the pandemic to an end faster in the developing world where only 2% of the population has been vaccinated. Such an investment would not have been just being charitable but would have reduced infections and loss of lives, accelerated the economic recovery, and generated some $9 trillion in additional global output by 2025.
War machines never go hungry

Two thirds of the people of Yemen are in need of assistance. They are suffering not due to a natural calamity but through a man-made war. We must fill the funding gap to help the Yemeni people. It is so cruel and immoral that war machines never go hungry yet so difficult to find funds to help people live decently. Total humanitarian funding worldwide reached 22 billion dollars last year, less than 40% of money required.

Sales of arms and military services total more than 361 billion dollars – the highest level since the end of the cold war. For every dollar spent on feeding, educating, clothing those in need, more than 16 dollars are spent on the arms trade. Let us do all we can to support ongoing efforts to bring this terrible war to an end and then help Yemen rebuild itself for the benefit of all Yemenis.

Photo Caption : Two thirds of the people of Yemen are in need of assistance. They are suffering not due to a natural calamity but through a man-made war.


Author:  Evarist Bartolo, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs (Malta).
This article was published on the Malta Independent on 5th October 2021.


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