ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a preliminary assessment of the extent to which multinational corporations are enmeshed in the various armament strategies pursued by developing countries. A final factor which accelerated the build-up of conventional weapons in many Third World countries during the 1970s was the rapid reorganization of international economic and military relationships between North and South. Several strategies exist whereby a Third World country can procure weapons and weapons technology. In Europe the situation is even more acute; major cutbacks in exports to the Third World could threaten the very existence of national design, development and production capabilities. Licensed production is, perhaps the most important form of military technology transfer to the Third World. Licensed production also allows the firms in industrialized countries to develop a ‘worldwide’ production network in order to by-pass export controls and bilateral embargoes. Licensed production for many developing countries amounts to no more than the assembly of components.
