Abstract

The proliferation of conventional weapons to the Third World has increased exponentially since the end of the Cold War. The rapidity in which some developing countries have acquired state-of-the-art weapons in a period of relative peace has led scholars to dismiss it as an arms race, although some arms racing dynamics are present. Nevertheless, much of the literature on Third World arms acquisition phenomenon has attributed the underlying causes of such build-ups to various international, regional and domestic factors. This thesis looks at domestic causes of Third World arms procurement from a different path. Instead of centering attention on domestic factors such as the military-industrial complex, or simply alluding to a regional arms race by counting states' arsenals, the focus in this thesis will examine three key important areas that shape arms acquisitions; civil-military relations, defence requirements, interservice rivalry in military organizations. The awareness of these key characteristics of Third World arms acquisitions will allow policymakers to discern if their country's sales of advanced conventional weaponry to various Third World client states will indirectly contribute to regional instability or will have no detrimental effects at all.