ABSTRACT
This chapter examines arms transfers to Africa as technology transfers and measure their benefits against the ability of African armies to absorb and effectively utilize them. The art of war, however, as it is certainly the noblest of all arts, so in the progress of improvement it necessarily becomes one of the most complicated among them. The arms trade with developing nations represents an important source of technology transfer at two levels. First, the weapons themselves require the transfer of operational, technical, logistical, and management skills for their maintenance and employment. Second, through repair, training, administrative, and supply facilities developed within recipient nations, these transfers represent an additional increment of indigenous absorptive capacity and infrastructure. Recipient nations have traditionally sought weapons to enhance their own security and to further their own political ends. Perhaps more important than the direct political consequences of the trends in arms transfers is their significance as technology transfers.
