No Room for Democracy in the Arms Bazaar: U.S. Arms Transfers in the Middle East and North Africa

Abstract

Over 27% of arms transfers between 2000 and 2013 from the United States to other nations were to the Middle East North Africa region. The region contains few democracies, is largely composed of nations that are considered not free, and tend to be at the epicenter of negative events that can have global effects. Previous research has analyzed U.S. arms sales to other nations in an attempt to understand U.S. motives, but has been limited by not specifically addressing the MENA region. Why do we see such a large percentage of U.S. arms being sold in the region? The research uses data from SIPRI, the World Bank, and various U.S. governmental departments to analyze the level of arms transfers, trade, liberties, and security agreements in the region in an attempt to identify any correlations that may explain such high arms transfer levels. The findings suggest that there is no significant correlation between democracy and freedoms with arms sales in the region contesting previous broader studies. The data does suggest that there are specific U.S. security-arrangements in the region coupled with trade relationships that may contribute to the large number of arms transfers in the region.