We’re #1: The US Government Is
The World’s Largest Arms Dealer
William Hartung / Forbes

(March 18, 2022) — The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) came out with its annual analysis of the global arms trade this week and as usual, the United States was the number one weapons exporter by a large margin. For the five years from 2017 to 2021, the US accounted for 39 percent of major arms deliveries worldwide, over twice what Russia transferred and nearly 10 times what China sent to its weapons clients. In addition, the US had far more customers — 103 nations, or more than half of the member states of the United Nations.

The rapid arming of Ukraine to defend itself against Russia’s invasion has put weapons transfers squarely in the public eye, but few Americans know how extensive the US trade is, or that their government is intimately involved in it, either through Foreign Military Sales (FMS) deals brokered by the Pentagon or Direct Commercial Sales (DCS) licensed by the State Department. In essence, the US government is the world’s largest arms dealer, with all the responsibility that that entails.

The Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC), underscored this point in its January 2018 report, “With Great Power: Modifying US Arms Sales to Reduce Civilian Harm,” which provided a series of practical recommendations on how to avoid situations in which US arms “fall into the wrong hands or become associated with corruption, human rights abuses, violations of the laws of war, and human suffering.” Unfortunately, current US policy continues to fall short by all of these measures.

One question raised by US dominance of the international arms trade is who is being supplied with US-made weapons, and how are they being used? The Biden administration has indicated that it will take a more measured approach to arms sales than the Trump administration did, and will place greater emphasis on human rights in deciding which countries get access to US military equipment.

This is a low bar when one remembers how President Trump was a cheerleader for US arms exports, touting their impact on American jobs and his role as arms salesman par excellence, and blocking Congressional efforts to stop sales to reckless, repressive regimes like the government of Saudi Arabia.

The volume of US arms offers under the Foreign Military Sales program — the largest channel for US weapons exports — dropped significantly during the first year of the Biden administration, in part because key markets were saturated by sales made by the US and other major exporters over the past few years.

To its credit, the Biden administration has not engaged in the sort of vocal, aggressive promotion of arms sales that prevailed during the Trump years. But it has fallen short in its pledge to limit sales to regimes that repress their own people and wage unjust wars outside their borders. Two prominent cases in point are Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Saudi Arabia and the UAE were the key players in a coalition that intervened in Yemen seven years ago this month with the goal of rolling back the gains of the Houthi opposition and their allies and enshrining a sympathetic government there.

The war has been brutal. Coalition air strikes have targeted hospitals, civilian neighborhoods, weddings, a funeral, and even a school bus, and have caused at least 18,000 civilian casualties. Nearly 400,000 people have died in the conflict, and millions are on the brink of famine, in significant part due to a Saudi air and naval blockade that has prevented the import of desperately needed fuel and supplies.

Yet the Biden administration has continued to arm the Saudi regime, and to supply critically important maintenance activities and spare parts that have enabled the slaughter in Yemen. This support has come despite President Biden’s description of Saudi Arabia as a pariah during his run for office, and his pledge to end support for “offensive operations in Yemen” along with “relevant arms sales.”

In another violation of the notion of centering human rights in arms sales policy — underscored in a new essay by my colleague Hayden Schmidt — just this week the Biden administration announced to proposed sale of F-15 combat aircraft to the al-Sisi dictatorship in Egypt, one of the most repressive regimes in the world, and a government that has engaged in indiscriminate bombing in the Northern Sinai, including the use of cluster bombs.

In discussing the deal and other US arms sales to the region, Gen. Kenneth Frank McKenzie, the head of the US Central Command, said that “with our weapons come our values.” There is no evidence to suggest that this is the case, and plenty of counter-examples, including the recent mass execution of 81 people by the Saudi regime.

Later this year the Biden administration is slated to announce its official arms transfer policy, and officials have assured human rights, humanitarian, and arms control groups that they will like what they see. But actions speak louder than words, and a good place to start would be by ceasing sales to repressive regimes like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, both on human rights grounds and in the interests of long-term peace and stability in the Middle East.

William Hartung is a Senior Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.  He is the author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex (Nation Books, 2011) and the co-editor, with Miriam Pemberton, of Lessons from Iraq: Avoiding the Next War (Paradigm Press, 2008).

Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.