Arms race

The phrase arms race, in its original usage, is a competition between two or more parties to have the best armed forces. Each party competes to produce larger numbers of weapons, greater armies, or superior military technology in a technological escalation.

International conflict specialist Theresa Clair Smith, defines the term as "the participation of two or more nation-states in apparently competitive or interactive increases in quantity or quality of war material and/or persons under arms."

Nowadays the term is mostly used to describe any competition where there is no absolute goal, only the relative goal of staying ahead of the other competitors, essentially the goal of proving to be "better".

WWI naval arms race


From the dates 1891 to 1919, an arms race between several European countries, including Prussia, France, Russia, and a few more took place. Specifically, Germany's envy of Britain's superior navy in the run up to World War I resulted in a costly building competition of Dreadnought-class ships. This tense arms race lasted until June 1914, when, after two antagonistic power blocs were formed because of the rivalry, the World War broke out. After the war, a new arms race developed among the victorious Allies. The Washington Naval Treaty was only partly able to put an end to the race. Prior to WWI, a dreadnought arms race also took place in South America.

Nuclear arms race
A nuclear arms race developed during the Cold War, an intense period between the Soviet Union and the United States. This was one of the main causes that began the cold war. On both sides, perceived advantages of the adversary (such as the "missile gap") led to large spending on armaments and the stockpiling of vast nuclear arsenals. Proxy wars were fought all over the world (e.g. in the Middle East, Korea, Vietnam) in which the superpowers' conventional weapons were pitted against each other. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, tensions decreased and the nuclear arsenal of both countries were reduced.

Other uses
More generically, the term "arms race" is used to describe any competition where there is no absolute goal, only the relative goal of staying ahead of the other competitors in rank or knowledge. An arms race may also imply futility as the competitors spend a great deal of time and money, yet end up in the same situation as if they had never started the arms race.

An evolutionary arms race is a system where two populations are evolving in order to continuously one-up members of the other population. An example of this is the escalation of drug resistance in pathogens, in step with the use of increasingly powerful drugs.

This is related to the Red Queen effect (Red Queen's Hypothesis), where two populations are co-evolving to overcome each other but are failing to make absolute progress.

In technology, there are close analogues to the arms races between parasites and hosts, such as the arms race between computer virus writers and antivirus software writers, or spammers against Internet service providers and E-mail software writers.

The arms race argument has also been invoked by gun control advocates, particularly in the United States where the debate is most polarised.

Literature

 * Richard J. Barnet: Der amerikanische Rüstungswahn. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1984, ISBN 3-499-11450-X
 * Jürgen Bruhn: Der Kalte Krieg oder: Die Totrüstung der Sowjetunion. Focus, Gießen 1995, ISBN 3-88349-434-8