Arms Sales: The New Diplomacy

The recent heated debate over the sale of Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) planes and F-15 fighter components to Saudi Arabia was only one of a number of controversies involving U.S. arms sales. The next weapons transfer which will meet congressional resistance is that of F-16 fighters to Pakistan, a sale which some believe will give a renewed impetus to the arms race on the subcontinent and undermine nonproliferation efforts. Serious questions are also being raised about the wisdom of the planned sale of F-16s to Venezuela, thereby crossing a technological threshold which in the past has restrained the transfer of the most advanced fighter aircraft to Latin America. Proposed new arms supply relationships with Argentina, Chile and Guatemala will draw the ire of those who are concerned about the dropping of past restrictions based upon these countries' human rights records. The Reagan Administration is faced with a tough decision regarding the sale of the FX fighter to Taiwan. Beijing has put Washington on notice that it considers the proposed sale as a "litmus test" of future Sino-American relations. But the same type of symbolism is attached to the sale by Taipei, which would view the failure to sell as a sign of abandonment.

Nor is it only the United States that is bedeviled by controversial arms sales decisions. Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of West Germany was forced to draw back from the sale of Leopard II tanks to Saudi Arabia earlier this year because of strong objections within his Social Democratic Party. French President François Mitterrand's decision to honor past commitments to Libya has raised objections. And even in Austria, a minor supplier of weapons, a sharp domestic debate has been unleashed by the sale of 57 light tanks to Argentina.

Arms sales have become, more than ever before, a crucial dimension of world politics. They are now major strands in the warp and woof of international affairs. Arms sales are far more than an economic occurrence, a military relationship, or an arms control challenge-arms sales are foreign policy writ large.

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