In what seems an odd juxtaposition, global military spending is slowing down while the global trade in weapons is on the rise. The data are clear about these trends. For the first time in 14 years, global military spending did not increase last year, part of an overall slowdown in global military spending that began in 2008. But, on the other hand, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reports that worldwide arms transfers — that is, state-to-state shipments of major conventional weapons — increased by 24 percent when comparing the five-year period between 2002 and 2006 to the more recent 2007-2011 period. In 2011 alone, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the value of arms transfers agreements (as opposed to actual deliveries) with developing countries more than doubled over the same figure for 2010, reaching more than $71 billion; actual deliveries to developed nations in 2011 reached their highest point since 2004 at $28 billion.

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