Arms Transfers, Military Coups, and Military Rule in Developing States

Scholarly studies on arms transfers, a critical aspect of present-day international politics, abound. These studies are almost all done from the perspectives of big and super powers. There is virtually no systematic and comparative study of the impact of arms transfers on developing states. Through the use of cross-national aggregate data analysis as well as case-by-case studies, we have examined the impact of arms transfers on civil-military relations in developing states. This analysis suggests that arms transfer facilitates the occurrence of coup d'état and lengthens the period of military rule. The study also indicates that large-scale deaths from political violence might be the result rather than the cause of military rule. We explain these relationships in sociopolitical terms.