PROBLEMS OF DEFINITION
Arms transfers belong to the most significant politico-military interactions on a global scale. They are given much public attention, but this does not necessarily result in a profound understanding of the problems involved.
The problems start with the search for a definition of arms transfers. Hardly any single definition will be fully satisfactory for general application. There are at least three main sources of problems. First, there are genuine ambiguities as to what should be considered arms. These ambiguities have a theoretical basis. Sometimes, and this is the second point, definitions of what are arms, and what constitutes arms transfers, have a political purpose. In this context, decisions by governmental agencies or individual researchers about what to include and what to exclude may be based only loosely on theoretical grounds and ambiguities exploited to present the position of one particular state or group of states in as favorable a light as possible. Third, even if there is a clear conception, in principle, as to what are arms and arms transfers, the definition may - for the sake of brevity - refer to the military or military use, and merely replace the ambiguity of defining arms by that of defining military. This third problem shows up in the following definition of arms transfers (Fried 1979: 262-263): "Arms transfers in the most inclusive sense consist of military goods and services that are given away, sold on credit (either at market or at concessional rates), or sold for cash".
The United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA), in a publication containing extensive statistics on arms transfers that will be used extensively for this report, defines arms transfers as follows:
Arms transfers (arms imports and exports) represent the international transfer (under terms of grant, credit, barter or cash) of military equipment, usually referred to as 'conventional', including weapons of war, parts thereof, ammunition, support equipment, and other commodities designed for military use. Among the items included are tactical guided missiles and rockets, military aircraft, naval vessels, armored and nonarmored military vehicles, communications and electronic equipment, artillery, infantry weapons, small aims, ammunition, other ordnance, parachutes, and uniforms. Dual use equipment, which can have application in both military and civilian sectors, is included when its primary mission is identified as military. The building of defense production facilities and licensing fees paid as royalties for the production of military equipment are included when they are contained in military transfer agreements. There have been no international transfers of purely strategic weaponry. Excluded are foodstuffs, medical equipment, petroleum products and other supplies. Services such as construction, training, and technical support are not included for the United States, whose services consist mainly of construction (primarily for Saudi Arabia). Military services of other countries, which are normally of a much smaller magnitude, are included.1
