US leads world in arms sales, especially to unstable, undemocratic regions

Arms transfers from the United States to other nations increased significantly over the past year, and exceeded previous levels, according to new data reported by the Congressional Research Service.

“In worldwide arms transfer agreements in 2011 — to both developed and developing nations — the United States dominated, ranking first with $66.3 billion in such agreements or 77.7% of all such agreements. This is the highest single year agreements total in the history of the U.S. arms export program,” the CRS report said. “Russia ranked second in worldwide arms transfer agreements in 2011with $4.8 billion in such global agreements or 5.6%. The value of all arms transfer agreements worldwide in 2011 was $85.3 billion, a substantial increase over the 2010 total of $44.5 billion, and the highest worldwide arms agreements total since 2004.”

The 85-page report is filled with an assortment of official arms sales data that was provided to CRS, but that is not generally made available otherwise.

The report was first reported in the New York Times. A copy was obtained by Secrecy News. See Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 2004-2011, August 24, 2012.