The global (weapons) pandemic
Speaking Security Newsletter | Congressional Candidate Advisory Note 19 | 23 June 2020
(Best of luck to all those with elections today! Your friends at SPRI recently wrote about one of these elections in particular: article | tweet)
The largely US-fueled global weapons pandemic is visible at home (via militarization of police) and abroad (via global arms sales).
This one’s about the latter (though I put a summary on the previous string of newsletters focused on *domestic* arms transfers at the bottom of this note).
Situation

^Photo/caption from here
Key figures
$240 billion(+): Total value of global arms sales brokered by the US government during Trump administration
$85.1 billion(+): Total value of US global arms sales in 2019
$63 billion: Average value/year of US global arms sales under Trump
$61.5 billion: Average value/year of US global arms sales under Obama
(^figures from this study)
Congressional oversight
The executive branch is basically free to proceed with any arms sale proposal unless Congress passes legislation prohibiting or modifying the proposed sale. The President is legally obliged to submit the arms sale proposal to Congress.
Congress has the legal authority to block a sale, but is at an institutional disadvantage in doing so. If Congress manages to pass legislation to block a proposed arms sale, all the President has to do is veto it and secure the support of one-third plus one of the members in either the Senate or House.
(For more information: the Congressional Research Service has a report on arms sales and the congressional review process, here)
Conclusion
All of us are complicit in whatever way US-made weapons are deployed abroad. Your opponent would likely take issue with this interpretation, but this is at least how US arms sales are often experienced on the ground: the “Made in USA” stamps or other identifying marks emblazoned on the remnants of US-made munitions makes this ‘local’ perspective especially hard to deny.
More on arms sales/transfers later.
Keep up the great work everyone!
Stephen (stephen@securityreform.org; @stephensemler)
Summaries of previous newsletters on police militarization
28 May: Tear gas is illegal in war but legal in policing
2 June: National Guard troops are military troops and should not be deployed domestically
4 June: A pretty good policy response to police militarization
9 June: Background info on the primary mechanism through which DOD transfers military-grade equipment to police
11 June: Using foreign policy as a tool to demilitarize police
18 June: Another area where Democrats’ policing bill doesn’t go far enough