Defense technologies and trade: Analysis of factors affecting international arms trade

A nation's ability to maintain its sovereignty depends on being prepared for internal and external threats and turmoil, and having the ability and capacity to defend itself when necessary. The necessity of self-defense of societies has historically made the production and use of weapons compulsory, and the development of weapon technologies over time has led to the emergence of modern weapons used today. The military expenditures of the states for defense and sometimes for attack have started to increase due to various factors. Therefore, today, states have entered into an unprecedented race for armament in history and have started to allocate huge shares from their economic incomes for defense expenditures. This race also affected the international arms trade. In this study, developments in weapon technologies and the effects of these developments on international arms trade were investigated. The factors affecting armament and therefore the international arms trade have also been tried to understand. Economic and political factors, regional factors and the extent of the blocking between countries have been tried to be examined with statistical and econometric analyzes. As a result of the analyzes, results that overlap with both the literature and the world realities have been obtained.