Opinion Sur
While the world seems to be heading towards a sharp economic slowdown, close to recession indicators, the arms industry is not slowing down. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, global military spending set a new record of $2.1 trillion in 2021.
This figure represented the increase in global arms sales for the seventh consecutive year and represented 2.2% of global GDP, with each country allocating an average of 6% of total public spending to its armies, SIPRI reported in December2022.
This was already happening before the war in Eastern Europe, which has led to significantly higher military spending in 2022 by most Western countries.
Prior to the start of Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine (February 2022), NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg reported in June 2021 that eight allies (out of 30 that make up the militarist alliance) met the guideline of spending 2% of their GDP on defense, five more than in 2014. It was estimated then that NATO’s total military spending in 2021 would exceed one trillion dollars.
Germany now plans to increase its military budget (misnamed “defense”) by almost 50%, from 1.4% of its GDP to 2%, similar to the increase announced by other NATO countries such as Spain and Poland. This indicates the alignment with the requirements of the United States of America, extracontinental leader of the alliance, to distribute more spending with European countries, reducing its participation close to 70% of total expenditure.
Far from thinking about how to bring peace closer and demilitarize human coexistence on the planet, the mention of strategists continues to be that of “deterrence”, which implies a new round of weapons “modernization”, incorporating digitalization and artificial intelligence into new weapons systems.
Thus, major aerospace and armaments companies are accelerating the development of integrated and autonomous systems, precision-guided missiles and missile defense, cyber and digital capabilities, and hypersonic weapons.
This arms offensive combined with the expected increase in unemployment and bad employment, the deterioration of environmental conditions, and the cruel and excessive concentration of wealth, added to the ruthless competition for geopolitical power, augur a horizon of generalized global conflict.
Who increases their profits with military conflicts?
Of the top ten companies in the global ranking of arms sales, five are American: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and General Dynamics. They are followed by BAE Systems, based in the United Kingdom and then 4 Chinese corporations appear, with lesser known names but ascending in the destructive scale: NORINCO, AVIC, CASC and CETC.
According to the available figures, these conglomerates invoiced amounts almost equivalent (46%) to the remaining 90 firms listed in the “top 100” of SIPRI.
It is well worth looking carefully, then, who obtain their monetary gain with such destruction.
In the American case, predictably, there are few surprises. The main shareholders of Lockheed Martin are three large investment funds, State Street Corp., Vanguard Group and Black Rock Inc. totaling between them almost 30% of the shares. Another 45% is held by smaller institutional investors, with the rest distributed in private equity packages.
Boeing, on the other hand, is controlled 57% by investment funds, being among the three most prominent, in addition to the aforementioned Vanguard and Black Rock, the Newport Trust Co.
Third on the list of death producers is Northrop Grumman Corp, whose stock package is 85% controlled by investment funds, being among the first SSgAFunds Management, Inc., Capital Research & Management Co and, once again, the Vanguard Group.
Something similar happens with Raytheon, in which 4 of 5 shares are held by the funds, which the first three shareholders are, again, the Vanguard group, State Street Corp., and Black Rock.
The same proprietary scheme shows General Dynamics, with 86% in the hands of institutional investors, including Longview Asset Management LLC, Vanguard, and Newport Trust Co.
The rest of the shares of these companies is composed of investments made by individuals in the stock market, generally mediated by advice and action of banks. A small part (about 1%) is held by “insiders” – individuals who work in the same companies, usually in management positions.
Also, most of the shares of BAE Systems, based in London, are held by large mutual funds, the main ones being the Income Fund of America Inc., the Capital World Growth, and Income Fund and the Capital Income Builder, Inc.
In the Chinese case, the ownership structure is different and the main companies, considered strategic, belong entirely to the State.
Norinco (China North Industries Group Corporation Limited), entered in 2022 in the core of the top five global arms sellers. It produces from tanks and aircraft, heavy and light weapons, drones, artillery and a long etcetera of death machines.
The China Aviation Industrial Corporation (AVIC) is one of the top ten enterprises in the country. Its production is very diversified, but it has a strong impact on the manufacture of electronic technology. In 2022, AVIC was the world’s second largest arms contractor, with revenues equivalent to $79 billion.
The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) is mainly engaged in the research, design, manufacture, testing and launch of space products such as launch vehicles, satellites, manned spacecraft, cargo spacecraft, deep space explorers and space stations, as well as strategic and tactical missile systems. Like the previous ones, it belongs to the State.
Finally, the tenth in the ranking of SIPRI is CETC (China Electronics Technology Group Corporation), which is mainly dedicated to intelligence technology, including data processing, facial recognition, drone swarm, electronic parts and systems for radars, missiles, key components for satellites, among others.
For their part, the main arms producing companies in Russia are grouped in the mega state conglomerate Rostec, officially State Corporation for Assistance in the Development, Production and Export of Advanced Technology Industrial Products Rostec, founded in 2007. The organization comprises some 700 companies, which together form 14 holdings: eleven in the arms industry complex and three in civilian sectors.
What drives the conflict? What can we expect in the future?
The report consulted indicates that in 2021 there were active armed conflicts in at least 46 states (one less than in 2020): 8 in the Americas, 9 in Asia and Oceania, 3 in Europe, 8 in the Middle East and North Africa and 18 in sub-Saharan Africa.
To which is added the current conflict in Ukraine, which at times threatens to escalate, as well as the strong tensions in the South China Sea.
One of the main factors driving the proliferation of weapons is the demand for markets and profits from the production companies. It is well known the capture of the State by the conglomerate of companies linked to armaments in the United States of America – main exporter and consumer at the same time with a budget of more than 800 billion (38% of the world total).
On the other hand, the relative decline of the once dominant power has unleashed a renewed arms race, trying to stop the advance of economic competitors through threat, which in turn leads them to increase their arsenals.
To which are added religious irrationalism, separatism, social exclusion of vast sectors, criminality, hatred as an ideological flag and the different repressive neo-obscurantist variants that are increasing in many countries, generating violence and more violence.
There are also flashes of light in several places, with progress in peace agreements such as in Colombia, Yemen, Libya, Syria or Ethiopia. Encouraging are also the resolutions of blocs such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) with its declaration of a Zone of Peace in 2014.
Del mismo modo, el aumento de adhesión formal al Tratado vinculante de prohibición
Similarly, the increased formal adherence to the binding Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons already ratified by 68 countries, the permanence of nuclear-weapon-free zones, the mediation efforts of the African Union, the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the peace efforts in Burundi, Congo, Somalia, Central African Republic and South Sudan are some significant achievements.
Likewise, there are numerous disarmament initiatives in the United Nations, whose slowness, together with the blockade or the lack of adhesion or compliance by the main actors involved, diminishes their effectiveness.
The current scenario leaves no room for doubt. We cannot wait, we must act decisively, turning the existing cry for peace in the peoples, the rejection of war, into a global wave.
In this sense, the points proclaimed by the First World March for Peace and Nonviolence, which toured the world between October 2, 2009 and February 2, 2010, promoted by the Humanist Movement and its founder Silo, remain valid.
“To avoid the future nuclear catastrophe, we must overcome violence today, demanding the immediate withdrawal of invading troops from occupied territories, the progressive and proportional reduction of conventional weapons, the signing of non-aggression treaties between countries and the renunciation of governments to use wars as a means to resolve conflicts.”
In order to displace the influence of those prehistoric forces that hinder the emergence of the world of the future, it is necessary to go even further and embrace non-violence as an attitude of daily and permanent life.
Such world, that attitude can and must be born in every human being and expanded through collective action. Its time is today.
Published in NODAL on February 14, 2023
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