The production and sale of arms is now the second largest industry in the world, only the oil industry is larger. More Third World countries produce arms now than ever before. Third World arms production may be a small percentage of total global production, but it causes an international diffusion of military power by increasing both the absolute number of weapons produced, and the number of available suppliers. / This dissertation empirically tests previous explanations why Third World countries produce arms. Previous research on the determinants of arms production is classified into four categories: internal political, internal economic, external political and external economic explanations. Each category is associated with competing theories of the state and economy. Cross-sectional and times-series research designs are specified to test nine hypotheses drawn from the previous research. The cross-sectional analyses produce a snapshot of the Third World, which is used to select three Third World arms producers for the times-series analysis. / The results from both cross-sectional and time-series analyses are remarkably consistent. Economic factors find more support than political-security factors when explaining both whether Third World countries will produce arms as well as the level of sophistication and volume at which they will produce arms. Indicators of a country's level of development and market size are consistently statistically significant and in the predicted direction. The effect of political-security variables such as embargoes, international threats and regime type find sporadic support in my analyses. In conclusion, Third World countries produce arms when they have the economic capacity and technological ability to do so. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-03, Section: A, page: 1313. / Major Professor: Dale L. Smith. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1996.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77677 |
| Contributors | Padgett, Mark Lee., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 250 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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