THE TRANSFER OF WEALTH FROM THE SOUTH TO THE NORTH/111account for two-thirds of total sales - with Taiwan, China and South
Korea topping the list of Third World arms importers.
Since 1996, there has been an intense debate in the US and Latin
American press on the arms trade. In 1977, at the time of the Latin
American dictatorships, US President Jimmy Carter placed an
embargo on arms sales to the region. This embargo has now come
under fire, since Latin American countries feel an urgent need to
upgrade their weaponry. The Chilean air force, for example, bought
20 second-hand Mirage jets from Belgium (Jornal do Brasil, 5 April
1997) at a time when the US would like nothing more than to sell
Latin American governments its brand-new F-16 jets. The US Chiefs
of Staff are currently consulting Latin American leaders; in 1997,
President Clinton authorised US military aviation companies to
explore the Chilean market. This is seen as a first step towards lifting
the embargo. One of Chile's neighbours, Argentina, has rightly
expressed concern over the proliferation of arms in the region.
This kind of US pressure is being felt in other parts of the world:
Arab countries, Asian countries and the new NATO members
(Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic) have been barraged with
offers. This US offensive stops at nothing: the Pentagon has even
bought up Mig-29 and Suthoi-27, 30 and 3 7 jets from countries of
the former Socialist Bloc in order, on the one hand, to replace them
with US hardware and, on the other, to study Soviet era military
technology (Le Monde, 18 November 1997). The reasons are quite
straightforward: the US military-industrial complex is preparing to
unleash a new generation of arms. In the interim, the challenge is to
offload its stocks of military hardware from the previous generation.
Many countries are going to receive arms that will be technologi
cally obsolete in two to three years, when the countries in question
will have just begun paying for them. The new generation of arms
will give a strategic advantage to the US if ever there is a military
conflict, since the US will be a generation ahead and have complete
control over its adversary's military technology. The US will provide
their customers with spare parts and technical assistance for
outdated hardware, while progressively equipping itself with the
latest from the new generation.
To summarise: ODA is directly tied to the strategic interests of the
countries of the centre. It is tied in particular to arms sales, with the
arms industry seeking the 'state intervention' that alone can enable
or oblige Third World customers to buy its products.