Analyzing Global Trade Issues: Arm Exports

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Analyzing Global Trade Issues: Arm Exports

Technological

Also tying this section to the social/cultural section, the development of certain technologies like AI for war causes ethical concerns. Like I talked about before, AI is being experimented on and implemented into military equipment such as drones. This raises large amounts of ethical concerns as people imagine what would happen if AI became self-aware and was able to resist commands from the creators. I'm pretty sure the United Nations has had discussion on whether AI should be banned from being able to be used as military weapons.

One of the risks or concerns that come with selling arms or military technology, is that there is always risk of those weapons being copied and used against the countries that sold the arms or technology. For example China has been known for reverse engineering American aircrafts. Obviously this causes security concerns for America specifically as China is copying the technology they are making.

Another benefit of international trade of arms is dual use technology which I talked about in the economic portion in more detail. But going back to that same example of vaccines, they are used to benefit society but can also be used in biological warfare or as a biological weapon. So it has it's pros and cons.

One of the benefits is that military research has led to advancements in aerospace, AI, and robotics. These advancements are both domestic and international. For example the internet started out as a government develop during the Cold War, but was later released to the public, for civilian use. Other developments such as GPS navigation also started out as government technology. So international trade has definitely influenced the creation of technologies that could be used for civilian use and military use.

There are a couple benefits to technology from international trade of arms.

Political/Legal

There's also a drawback when it comes to legal policies that have been implemented due to international arms trade. Countries that trade arms must follow the extremely strict regulations that have been created, which limit what countries they can trade arms with. Again using that example with Saudi Arabia, Canada put a restriction on trading arms with them, making it so they couldn't sell military equipment at all to Saudi Arabia.

One example of a legal policy that has been brough about due to international trade of arms is The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). It's a policy that contains strict rules on international arms transfers that was made to decrease the amount of human rights violations from international trade of arms. There's around more than 100 countries that have joined the treaty.

Another benefit of trading arms internationally is that countries that are able to trade arms and military technology have larger influence in international defense policies and negotiations. This is because it makes other countries put more reliance on Canada as Canada is exporting a good portion of arms to it's allies, giving it more control in things like global arms control policies. For example when that whole ordeal happened with Saudi Arabia which I talked about in the economic section, Canada froze arms exports to Saudi Arabia due to the concerns about human right violations with the use of arms exported from Canada to Saudi Arabia.

When looking at Canada specifically, the Canadian government supports arms production and the defense industry through a lot of policies, funding, and incentives. This is basically done to ensure that Canada can be competitive in the global defense market. One of the government run corporations is the CCC which basically can help Canadian defense companies make deals with foreign governments. Their whole goal is to make it easier for Canadian companies to sell any type of goods, in this case military goods internationally. I talked about this before but that whole ordeal with Saudi Arabia and how Canada sold millions of dollars worth of military equipment to Saudi Arabia. The CCC had a role in the selling of that equipment. Another thing that the Canadian government encourages, is the research and development of defense technologies. There are other government owned companies such as the IDEaS which offer funding to private companies that are attempting to develop defense technologies.

One benefit of internationally trading arms for politics would be the fact that it can strengthen alliances with other countries militaries. By exporting arms and weapons to other countries militaries when they are in need geopolitical ties can be strengthened, allowing countries to trust and rely on each other when in war. For example Canada provides most members of NATO with military tech and arms, strengthening the treaty and trust of the countries with Canada overall. Although this can also have a drawback as giving arms to a country in war with another country, might cause the other country to have decreased geopolitical ties with the country that traded firearms.

Since arms is a very controversial topic it has many benefits and drawbacks towards politics and global legality.

Economic

The last main drawback would be related to the advancement of technology due to international trade of arms. Going back to the dual use technology I stated that pharmaceuticals and biotechnology companies have the opportunity to create both good and bad products from the creation of one product. Since creating a vaccine requires samples of the disease they are trying to make vaccines for, this research can also be used in negative ways. For example during Covid-19 there were a lot of concerns around hostile countries like North Korea as they could use the pandemic to get biotech equipment from other countries. This caused large concerns as North Korea has been known to be researching heavily into biological weapons since at 2002. Due to the pandemic, they could acquire more equipment for research into more deadly and viral biological weapons. Also another downside to technological advancements is the fact that developing new military technology costs large amounts of money and are not always profitable.

Obviously with all of these upsides there's downsides for pretty much each point. For example selling weapons to one country could effect relationships with other countries in a negative way. During the war between Ukraine and Russia, which I'm pretty sure is still happening but I'm not completely sure, Canada sold arms to Ukraine to attempt to assist them with the war. This obviously angered Russia as they were on the opposing side of the war, this increased geopolitical tensions between Canada and Russia as it was clear what side Canada was on.

The last main benefit from trading arms internationally is that it can help with technological innovations. For example international arms trade has led to advancements of dual use technology. Basically what dual use means, is that it can have military and non-military applications. An example of companies that can produce dual use technology would be pharmaceuticals and biotech companies as they produce vaccines that are vital for non-military use. The pharmaceutical companies are also able to create biological weapons which have mainly downsides but I'll get into that later. But with dual use technology there are also a couple upsides, like the development of AI in both military and non-military sectors. Although AI is still in pretty early development it has many uses and some of the main ones in the military sector are things like biometric assassination systems and naval ghost fleets. Biometric assassination systems are armed drones that target enemies using AI and I'm assuming that naval ghost fleets are naval ships that are powered by AI for defensive or offensive reasons. These advancements benefit soldiers especially as there is less opportunities for them to be deployed into combat, risking their lives for a task that can now be completed with a non-living being.

The third benefit that comes with trading arms internationally is that it can strengthen trade relationships with other countries. Due to international trade of arms, Canada believes that international peace and security is pretty important. So they participate in a lot of arms control and export control activities, while working closely with other countries and trade partners. Some of these include the Arms Trade Treaty, The United Nations Register of Conventional Arms, The Wassenaar Arrangement, The Nuclear suppliers Group, and The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. These organizations are able to benefit the relationships of Canada with other countries as defense is an important point in every country. Having strong trade relationships is important for Canada as it allows for the country to have access to a wider selection of resources and products. Also having good relations with other countries contributes to the other points I stated before.

Another benefit that comes with trading arms internationally is that arms manufacturing provides thousands of jobs that pay pretty well. These jobs can be in things like engineering, production, and research. Again looking at the year of 2022 we can see that there are around 61 thousand employees in the defense sector of Canada. The defense industry provides Canadians all over the world with employment. For example Ontario has a decent amount of jobs relating to combat vehicle manufacturing as well as aircraft and aircraft parts manufacturing. While Quebec has jobs allocated to ammunition and other munitions manufacturing. Also around more than 2 thousand workers have been employed just for manufacturing armored vehicles for international trade.

One of the benefits that come with trading arms internationally is that it boosts the economy as well as GDP. For example in Canada our arms exports added 9.6 billion dollars to our GDP in 2022. Also Canada produced around 7 billion dollars from exports of arms alone. Looking at the exports to the USA we can see that Canada gained more than 4 billion dollars in 2022 which furthers our understanding that the USA is Canada's biggest trade partner.

There are many drawbacks and benefits when it comes to the economics of trading arms internationally.

Environmental

Also with arms being traded internationally and being given to other countries to assist with war and conflict, war brings a lot of damage to environments. Especially when weapons like explosives are brought into it. War can lead to multiple different negative impacts on the environment such as deforestation, soil erosion, water pollution, losses of wildlife, air pollution, and at worst nuclear accidents. In my opinion one of the worst environmental impacts of war is probably soil degradation or erosion as military activities such as bombings can implement heavy metals into soil which effects both plant growth and food production for the country that has been bombed. An example of when the environment has been destroyed from a war is during World War II where there was a large scale destruction of forests all across Europe, causing damage to soil and habitats to be destroyed.

Although these bio-based fuels are being tested and researched, it still most likely will cost non-renewable resources to manufacture the vehicles that use them and even to produce the fuels in mass amounts. Also the production of weapons and arms involve chemicals, heavy metals, and lots of emissions which in turn contribute to pollution. So basically the production of these arms are probably the main contributor to pollution rather than the fuels that the military vehicles use.

Although this may be a little bit of a stretch but during war or conflict, like I stated before, a lot of harm on the environment is done. By exporting weapons to allies that are in war or conflict, it is possible that it can prevent prolonged war. This ends up benefitting the environment as the war ends sooner and less of the environment gets destroyed from the war.

Obviously war and conflict cause great use of fuels and other resources that are harmful to the environment and cause pollution. Since the world knows that we need to find alternatives to non-reliable resources, countries are working on reducing the environmental impact of weapons manufacturing as well as pollution from military vehicles. For example Canada has recently been researching and testing bio-based fuels for military vehicles to reduce emissions. Some of these bio-based fuels include biodiesel and biojet fuel. Although there are some performance concerns that come with the use of bio-based fuels. Such as the fact that some of them cannot operate in cold weather. International trade can definitely help with the research and testing of these bio-based fuels as well as maybe in the future when they are fully functional, vehicles using these fuels can be distributed to different countries that are in need of military vehicles

Social/Cultural

The last drawback is related to religious views on arms trade. Most religions believe that the production of arms and the trading of arms is what causes conflicts, wars, and human rights violations. Obviously since a lot of religions believe that war is a sin and global peace is what the world should be striving for, arms production and international trade get us further away from global peace. So arms trade most likely effects the views of religious people on countries that contribute to conflict in this way.

Now looking at the drawbacks which definitely outweigh the benefits in this section specifically. One drawback is that these weapons that are sold internationally can sometimes be used in human rights violations, which is why Canada tries it's best to be strict with who their selling weapons to. For example during the civil war in Yemen, Canada had exported LAV's to Saudi Arabia which allegedly killed hundreds of thousands of people. This sparked huge amounts of controversy in Canada and overall the whole world as obviously Canadian arms and military equipment were being used to commit crimes against international human rights laws. There is also a lot of ethical concerns when it comes to exporting arms to places that are known to commit crimes against human rights, like Saudi Arabia. A lot of Canadians believe that Canada should not export arms to countries like this as it goes against the human rights laws that Canada believes in.

Another benefit to the culture from trading arms internationally, is that countries can gain recognition for developing military weapons and assets. This in turn can increase the pride that people have for their country. For example Canada is pretty well known for their LAV 6 (Light Armored Vehicle 6.0). It's a well known infantry fighting vehicle that can be deployed on a large amount of terrains. This vehicle has been traded internationally, again to Ukraine to assist with defending against Russian forces. This vehicle has been recognized for it's battlefield effectiveness and gives Canada recognition for advanced technology in military sectors.

Although I sort of talked about this in the economic portion it also plays a role in social and cultural values. So what I'm talking about is that trading arms internationally supports international peacekeeping and security. So basically when another country sells weapons to it's allies, it can help stabilize those countries by equipping friendlies to deal with opposing threats. Using this example again, during the war between Ukraine and Russia, Canada supplied Ukraine with weapons and equipment to fight back against Russia and defend the country of Ukraine. This basically helped protect Ukraine and the people of Ukraine against the invading Russian forces. There are many cases of this, especially in Canada which overall benefits global security.

When it comes to the social and cultural categories there are a lot more drawbacks than benefits of trading arms internationally.