ABSTRACT
The evolution of the European and global arms market has inevitably had an impact on French arms-export policy. The defence industry experienced a severe slump after the end of the Cold War, as total worldwide military spending fell dramatically. The global trade in arms, which had already been slowing during the 1980s, continued its downward trajectory for the first half of the 1990s. Internationally, including at the European level, the post-Cold War period also saw the emergence of initiatives to better regulate global arms transfers, and the linking of human-rights issues to the arms trade. From the 1990s onwards, as a result of shifting regional dynamics, American and European defence firms found themselves facing increased competition for arms contracts, with the emergence of new defence suppliers such as Israel, Turkey, South Korea, Brazil and China. China, in fact, rose to become the world’s third-largest arms exporter in the period 2011–15, overtaking Germany, France and the UK.
