Report: Exposing the Arms Export Lobby - World Policy Institute - Research Project

by William D. Hartung

note:This report should be used in conjunction with the April 1997 "Peddling Arms, Peddling Influence Update," which provides updated statistics on some of the data contained in this report.

This special report is part of an ongoing series of reports on the costs and consequences of the conventional arms trade carried out by the Arms Trade Resource Center, a project of the World Policy Institute at the New School for Social Research. This report was written by Institute Senior Fellow William D. Hartung with research assistance by Institute Research Associate Jennifer Washburn. The Center would like to thank Sheila Krumholz of the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics for providing comprehensive data on campaign contributions by major arms exporting firms, and Paul Murphy of Eagle Eye Services of Vienna, Virginia for providing information on the top contractors involved in the Pentagon's Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. This report would not have been possible without their timely assistance.

The World Policy Institute would also like to thank the following foundations whose support made this project possible: the Compton Foundation, the S.H. Cowell Foundation, the HKH Foundation, the Ruth Mott Fund, the Ploughshares Fund, Rockefeller Family Associates, and the Spanel Foundation.

The end of the Cold War and the corresponding drop in Pentagon spending on big ticket weapons systems has posed an ongoing dilemma for U.S. military contractors: how shall they adjust to this historic reduction in their business base? Various strategies have emerged, from "downsizing" and selling off defense divisions, to merging into defense "mega-companies" like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, to diversifying into commercial product lines. But one of the most popular strategies of all has been to expand foreign sales of the same weapons these firms have been providing to the Pentagon.