The War Business: The International Trade in Armaments and Arms for the Third World: Soviet Military Aid Diplomacy

This article addresses the problem of military dominance in the Third World from the perspective of historical and structural linkages with the West. The author argues that military trends can be traced to the Cold War period when the U.S. poured military aid into newly emergent states willing to join the anti-communist campaign. This stimulated the development of large and sophisticated militaries within otherwise underdeveloped states, severely burdening local economies. As internal conditions worsened, hard-pressed Third World states employed the philosophy of total war built into Cold War diplomacy to shift their image of “the enemy” from external actors exclusively, to domestic social groups, using the military to maintain social control. Today, “security and development” is a prominent Third World slogan but it is a goal frustrated by three interrelated factors: globalization of the East/West conflict which is epitomized by interventions and regional arms races; reduction in foreign military aid; and consequent subordination of development needs to the demands of military preparedness. Rather than experiencing development, Third World states face chronic balance of payments problems and unemployment, largely because they are sectorally linked with the world market in a spiral of military-related economic relationships. Attempts to counter this trend must take into account the complex dynamic of the new international military order by planning for alternative security arrangements as well as alternative economic policies. To this end, the author suggests that a system of taxation of arms or military spending would be useful; it would provide incentives to convert arms industries into more socially productive enterprises without forcing the Third World to abandon all arms purchases.

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Globalisation and Economic Growth in the Third World: Some Evidence from Eighteenth-Century Mexico

Journal of Latin American Studies ◽

10.1017/s0022216x05009429 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 37 (3) ◽

pp. 437-467 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

CARLOS ALEJANDRO PONZIO

Keyword(s):

Economic Growth ◽

Eighteenth Century ◽

International Trade ◽

Market Integration ◽

Third World ◽

The Third ◽

Rapid Economic Growth ◽

Bourbon Reforms ◽

The Third World

This article studies the connection between globalisation and economic growth in eighteenth-century Mexico. This was a period of globalisation in Mexico, characterised by market integration and growth in international trade. I estimate economic growth at that time and explore its relationship with the dominant export of the epoch, silver. The results show that Mexico experienced rapid economic growth in the eighteenth century and, furthermore, that exports caused that growth. During the period of Bourbon reforms economic growth improved, but not dramatically. Mining ceased to be the engine of growth by the end of the century.

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