According to the 2024 “Trends in International Arms Transfers,” published last week by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the US and its NATO allies control over 80% of all arms exports for the constant wars and conflicts across the world.
Benefitting immensely from the war in Ukraine, the US increased its total share in global arms exports to 43% in the period between 2020 and 2024. The US is so dominant in global arms exports that it exceeds the combined share of the next top eight arms exporting countries.
The US is the only arms exporting country with a presence in all regions in the world. It supplies arms to 107 countries across the world. It registered an increase of over 21% in its arms exports between the 2015–19 and 2020–24 periods, despite a slight dip in the global arms transfers in the same period.
The US is not the sole beneficiary of the global conflicts. Its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have also benefited greatly. Three members of NATO, the US, France (9.6%), and Germany (5.6%) are featured in the top five arms exporters list, while six NATO members are in the top 10.
In the world’s top ten exporters list, NATO countries controlled over 70% of the world’s total arms sales from 2020-24. If one includes South Korea (2.2%) and Israel (3.1%), the US’ closest non-NATO allies, their combined share jumps to over 75%.
Several other NATO countries such as Turkey (1.7%) and Netherlands (1.2%) have a substantial share in global arms exports which takes their total combined share in global arms trade to over 75%. This is an unprecedented domination of NATO countries in the global arms trade.
A total of 12 full members of NATO appear in the top 20 list of arms exporters. Four other countries, Israel, South Korea, Australia, and Ukraine are also present in the top 20 list which brings the total number of US allies in the top 20 up to 16.
Only Russia (7.8%), China (5.9%), and Iran (0.4%) represent the non-NATO allies in the top 20 arms exporters in the world.
Impact of War in Ukraine on arms trade
Russia, which had a share of over 22% in the global arms exports before the beginning of the war in Ukraine, saw a drastic decrease in its share in the global arms trade by more than half between 2015-19 and 2020-24 taking it to the third place after France.
The fall in Russian exports is largely attributed to numerous sanctions imposed by the US and its European allies following the beginning of the war in Ukraine in 2022. Russia’s own need for weapons also plays a major role in the decline in exports.
Ukraine emerged as the largest importer of weapons thanks to the war with Russia. It alone received around 9% of all weapons exported across the world in 2024. The US supplied 45% of all weapons imported by Ukraine while the rest of the delivery was covered by other NATO members.
Europe as a whole emerged as the second largest arms importing region recording a jump of over 155% in its arms imports in 2020-24, bypassing the Middle East. The increase in Europe’s arms imports is attributed to changes in US foreign policy in recent years vis-a-vis its defense commitments to its European NATO allies.
The first Donald Trump administration had repeatedly asked its NATO allies in Europe to increase their defense expenditure in order to reduce their dependence on the US. In its second term it continues to make similar threats to Europeans, calling on NATO partners to increase military spending to 5%.
However, Asia and Oceania remain the biggest buyers of arms despite a steep decline in its overall imports. According to SIPRI, the region’s share in global arms imports fell from 41% in 2015-19 to 33% in 2020-24 with China recording the largest decline in imports. This took China out of the top ten list of importing countries for the first time since 1990-94.
India remained the world’s second largest importer of arms. Japan continues to record a massive increase in its arms import in the 2020-24 period increasing its overall share in the global arms imports to 3.9%.
The Middle East was the third biggest arms importing region with a share of nearly 27%. This is despite the decline of over 20% in comparison to the 2015-19 period. Four countries from the region appear in the top ten list. Qatar was the third largest arms importer in the world with a share of nearly 7%. Qatar was followed by Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kuwait.
