Arms Sales for India
How Military Trade Could Energize U.S.-Indian Relations
Sunil Dasgupta and Stephen P. CohenSUNIL DASGUPTA teaches political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County [1]. STEPHEN P. COHEN is a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution [2]. They are the co-authors of Arming Without Aiming: India's Military Modernization [3].
Much has been made of U.S. President Barack Obama's pledge to support India's push for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, which was offered during his November trip to India, but the real story from his visit was its implications for bilateral military trade. During the trip, Obama announced that the United States would sell $5 billion worth of U.S. military equipment to India, including ten Boeing C-17 military transport aircraft and 100 General Electric F-414 fighter aircraft. Although the details are still being worked out,