When it comes to making weapons of war you can divide the world, unevenly, in two. There are producers of arms, the United States, Russia, France and China. And there are consumers. That’s just about everyone else.
With $142 billion in weapons sales over the last decade, the United States sits firmly atop the list of arms exporters. But while most of the arms made in the U.S. start out legal, they end up somewhere else; flowing through what one author calls the “gray zone” of arms commerce. This deadly underworld is powered by a volatile combination of failed and failing states, loose borders, an almost complete lack of international oversight, and a few unscrupulous dealers. The global arms trade, a portrait in black, white, and gray.
Guests:
Lee Wolosky, senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former member of the national security council under president’s Clinton and George W. Bush
Peter Galbraith, is the former U.S. Ambassador to the republic of Croatia and senior policy advisor to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Peter Landesman, journalist who wrote the New York Times Magazine article “Arms and the Man”.