Arms race

An arms race occurs when two or more groups compete in military superiority.^[1] It consists of a competition between two or more states to have superior armed forces, concerning production of weapons, the growth of a military, and the aim of superior military technology.^[2] Unlike a sporting race, which constitutes a specific event with winning interpretable as the outcome of a singular project, arms races constitute spiralling systems of on-going and potentially open-ended behavior.^[3]

The existing scholarly literature is divided as to whether arms races correlate with war.^[4] International-relations scholars explain arms races in terms of the security dilemma, engineering spiral models, states with revisionist aims, and deterrence models.^[4]^[5]^[6]

^ Smith, Theresa Clair (1980). "Arms Race Instability and War". Journal of Conflict Resolution. 24 (2): 255. doi:10.1177/002200278002400204. S2CID 154715176. For the purpose of this study an arms race is understood as the participation of two or more nation-states in apparently competitive or interactive increases in quantity or quality of war material and/or persons under arms.
^ "arms race". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2023-06-13.
^ Documents on Disarmament. Volume 126 of Publication (United States. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency), 1983, page 312 - "[...] the goal of across-the-board supremacy [...] would mean an uncontrolled, open-ended, and very expensive arms race."
^ ^a ^b Glaser, Charles L. (2010). Rational Theory of International Politics. Princeton University Press. pp. 228–232. ISBN 9780691143729.
^ Glaser, Charles L. (2000). "The Causes and Consequences of Arms Races". Annual Review of Political Science. 3 (1): 251–276. doi:10.1146/annurev.polisci.3.1.251. ISSN 1094-2939.
^ Posen, Barry (1984). The Sources of Military Doctrine: France, Britain, and Germany Between the World Wars. Cornell University Press. pp. 13–24. ISBN 978-0-8014-1633-0.

[1] Smith, Theresa Clair (1980). "Arms Race Instability and War". Journal of Conflict Resolution. 24 (2): 255. doi:10.1177/002200278002400204. S2CID 154715176. For the purpose of this study an arms race is understood as the participation of two or more nation-states in apparently competitive or interactive increases in quantity or quality of war material and/or persons under arms.

[2] "arms race". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2023-06-13.

[3] Documents on Disarmament. Volume 126 of Publication (United States. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency), 1983, page 312 - "[...] the goal of across-the-board supremacy [...] would mean an uncontrolled, open-ended, and very expensive arms race."

[:0-4] Glaser, Charles L. (2010). Rational Theory of International Politics. Princeton University Press. pp. 228–232. ISBN 9780691143729.

[5] Glaser, Charles L. (2000). "The Causes and Consequences of Arms Races". Annual Review of Political Science. 3 (1): 251–276. doi:10.1146/annurev.polisci.3.1.251. ISSN 1094-2939.

[6] Posen, Barry (1984). The Sources of Military Doctrine: France, Britain, and Germany Between the World Wars. Cornell University Press. pp. 13–24. ISBN 978-0-8014-1633-0.

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