ABSTRACT
The literature on arms trade offsets (and offsets generally) is cluttered with a babel of terms. These include: direct and indirect offsets; commercial and industrial countertrade; simple and multiple barter; bilateral government trade agreements and bilateral government framework agreements; compensatory arrangements; clearing arrangements; economic cooperation agreements; coproduction; licensed production; subcontractor production; overseas investment; buybacks; technology transfer; and switch trade.1 Authors arrange these terms into a plausible order and proceed from there.2 The major themes they then address are captured in the following questions:
1. Are arms trade offsets part of normal trade relations or are they in some sense “extranormal” and, if so, why would that matter?
