9781422281284

world’s two most powerful nations were hostile to and suspi- cious of each other but never directly fought. This period is known as the Cold War . It saw an expansion of the arms industry and the development of giant weapons and aerospace companies. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, more arms were bought and sold than at any other time in history. The two superpowers built up larger and larger stockpiles of weapons within their own borders while spending vast sums on research into new types of arms, including nuclear weapons. In addition, the US, Soviet Union, and their major allies supplied many other nations and forces with large amounts of military equipment. Sometimes, these arms were donated or offered at greatly-reduced prices to governments in order to build alliances against the other superpower. Some of these weapons supplies were donated to rebel groups in coun- tries whose governments were friendly to the other superpow- er. The goal was to topple these governments and replace them with others that would become allies. Arms since the Cold War With the collapse of the Soviet Union at the start of the 1990s, there were no longer two rival superpowers. The threat of all- out war between the world’s most powerful nations receded, and the US, Russia, and many of their major allies scaled down the size of their military forces. This resulted in a large surplus of arms, many of which were sold to other countries at greatly- reduced prices. New military spending decreased a great deal but not at a rate that many peace campaigners had hoped for. Today’s remaining superpower, the US, still spends an enor-

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Understanding the Arms Trade