The global arms race between the US and China is devastating Africa and the
Middle East
Middle East
Antony Loewenstein on July 23, 2015 7 Comments
The global arms race has never been more lucrative. America and China are
engaged in unprecedented levels of spending around the world to influence and
shape global affairs. The effects are devastating on civilians but Washington
and Beijing insists they’re “stabilizing” nations. It’s one of the deadliest
myths of the 21st century.
Saudi Arabia has executed at least 100 people since January, half of which were
for non-violent drug offences. The country’s bombing campaign in Yemen has
killed thousands of civilians and exacerbated a humanitarian catastrophe in the
Arab world’s poorest nation.
None of these facts have any bearing on America’s attitude towards its close
Middle Eastern ally. Between 2010 and 2014, both countries reached $90 billion
of weapons sales that included planes and armored vehicles. Despite calls from
activists to halt the huge increase in arms deals between Western nations and
Saudi Arabia, Riyadh claims it fears the rise of Iran and Islamic State and is
now the world’s biggest defense importer.
The effect on regional violence will be devastating with the Obama
administration overseeing the largest expansion of weapons’ dealing in history.
Washington is bribing Israel with arms to accept the Iranian nuclear deal (and
despite the bluster Netanyahu will eventually accept it) while continuing to
sell weapons to the dictatorial Egyptian regime. Jordan is receiving
precision-guided missiles for its fight against Islamist militants and Bahrain,
even after brutally crushing a pro-democracy movement in 2011, knew it would
still receive military support from America.
A nuclear agreement between Washington and Iran is undeniably better than a
military conflict but Muslim civilians in the region will pay a steep price.
The Wall Street Journal captured the mood with its headline: “US seeks to ally
concerns of allies on nuclear deal”. This is code for bribing autocracies with
more weapons:
“The U.S. is specifically looking at ways to expedite arms transfers to Arab
states in the Persian Gulf and is accelerating plans for them to develop an
integrated regional ballistic missile defense capability, a senior
administration official said.”
When US Secretary of State John Kerry talks of Tehran increasing instability in
the Middle East, it’s worth remembering who is introducing so much defense
equipment into the region. Arming dictatorial allies is one of the darkest
legacies of the Obama era.
Defense contractors are excited about the prospect of increased tension in the
Middle East. Insecurity leads to strong business. Defense company Lockheed
Martin is predicting that foreign sales will soon represent 20 percent of its
business. In a sign of its seriousness, the firm opened the Center for
Innovation and Security Solutions in Abu Dhabi in late 2014 to assist the
United Arab Emirates and design more efficient ways to partner with US allies.
Another firm, Raytheon, is seeing increased sales with Saudi Arabia, Israel,
Qatar and the UAE.
Grant Rogan, CEO of Blenheim Capital and a military sales expert, recently told
Foreign Policy that American weapons’ deals could soon skyrocket. “The Saudis
and Emiratis don’t trust the [Iranian nuclear] deal, no matter what the deal
is”, he said. He expected advanced radar systems “happening in Saudi
substantially faster if there’s no deal — or if it’s a deal that doesn’t defang
Iran.”
However, America’s dominance of global arms sales is being challenged like
never before. China is especially appealing to developing countries, keen on
buying “military set meals”, a starter pack of basic defense gear. South Sudan
has been a willing buyer despite the regime pursuing a brutal war against its
civilian population. Although Beijing has spent billions of dollars building
infrastructure in countless areas around the world in the last decade,
including Africa, growing environmental, debt and labor issues have increased
skepticism towards China’s development model.
“China’s leaders demonstrate little appreciation of the yawning gulfs that
separate African people from their rulers, even in newly democratic nations”,
writes journalist Howard French. Washington claims to believe in good
governance and freedom of speech but its policies have entrenched
authoritarianism across Africa under the guise of “fighting terrorism”.
China and America are now engaged in a race for African dollars, a continent
with resources and a growing middle class to embrace and exploit. Founder of
military contractor Blackwater, Erik Prince, works with Frontier Services Group
alongside China’s biggest state-owned firm, Citic Group, to get some of the
estimated $1 trillion Beijing intends to spend in Africa by 2025.
Despite China’s partial colonization of Africa, Washington has accelerated
covert operations in the last years to support, train and arm militaries and
rebel groups. American journalist Nick Turse, writing in his new book,
Tomorrow’s Battlefield: US Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa, explains how
George W. Bush and particularly Barack Obama have engendered a pivot towards
Africa “spanning almost fifty countries”. These include “drone assassinations
in Somalia, a proxy war in Mali, shadowy ops in Chad and antipiracy efforts in
the Gulf of Guinea.” US Africa Command (AFRICOM) is a secretive organization
with little strategic depth.
The effect, like in the Middle East, has been to hugely destabilize an already
fragile continent. At an Obama-led US-Africa summit in Washington in 2014,
African leaders were desperate for new weapons to fight wars that neatly fit
with Washington’s “war on terror”. Think Nigeria’s battle against Boko Haram,
one example of a US-backed army committing gross abuses of human rights in its
battle against extremism. The deadly reality is that American efforts have
failed spectacularly, causing suffering for African civilians and increasing
the chances of blowback on the American homeland.
The Global Peace Index released its 2015 report and found an increasingly
unstable world. Arms dealing by China and America are directly contributing to
this result and yet their involvement in this deadly trade is too rarely
acknowledged.
Past the rosy headlines of an Iranian and American détente lies the grim
reality for millions of civilians in Africa and the Middle East. For them,
Washington and Beijing will continue selling weapons to leaders for whom the
ideas of democracy and peace are foreign concepts.
About Antony Loewenstein
Antony Loewenstein is an independent journalist based in South Sudan, Guardian
columnist and author of the forthcoming book, Disaster Capitalism: Making A
Killing Out of Catastrophe (Verso, September)
The global arms race between the US and China is devastating Africa and the
Middle East
Middle East
Antony Loewenstein on July 23, 2015 7 Comments
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The global arms race has never been more lucrative. America and China are
engaged in unprecedented levels of spending around the world to influence and
shape global affairs. The effects are devastating on civilians but Washington
and Beijing insists they’re “stabilizing” nations. It’s one of the deadliest
myths of the 21st century.
Saudi Arabia has executed at least 100 people since January, half of which were
for non-violent drug offences. The country’s bombing campaign in Yemen has
killed thousands of civilians and exacerbated a humanitarian catastrophe in the
Arab world’s poorest nation.
None of these facts have any bearing on America’s attitude towards its close
Middle Eastern ally. Between 2010 and 2014, both countries reached $90 billion
of weapons sales that included planes and armored vehicles. Despite calls from
activists to halt the huge increase in arms deals between Western nations and
Saudi Arabia, Riyadh claims it fears the rise of Iran and Islamic State and is
now the world’s biggest defense importer.
The effect on regional violence will be devastating with the Obama
administration overseeing the largest expansion of weapons’ dealing in history.
Washington is bribing Israel with arms to accept the Iranian nuclear deal (and
despite the bluster Netanyahu will eventually accept it) while continuing to
sell weapons to the dictatorial Egyptian regime. Jordan is receiving
precision-guided missiles for its fight against Islamist militants and Bahrain,
even after brutally crushing a pro-democracy movement in 2011, knew it would
still receive military support from America.
A nuclear agreement between Washington and Iran is undeniably better than a
military conflict but Muslim civilians in the region will pay a steep price.
The Wall Street Journal captured the mood with its headline: “US seeks to ally
concerns of allies on nuclear deal”. This is code for bribing autocracies with
more weapons:
“The U.S. is specifically looking at ways to expedite arms transfers to Arab
states in the Persian Gulf and is accelerating plans for them to develop an
integrated regional ballistic missile defense capability, a senior
administration official said.”
When US Secretary of State John Kerry talks of Tehran increasing instability in
the Middle East, it’s worth remembering who is introducing so much defense
equipment into the region. Arming dictatorial allies is one of the darkest
legacies of the Obama era.
Defense contractors are excited about the prospect of increased tension in the
Middle East. Insecurity leads to strong business. Defense company Lockheed
Martin is predicting that foreign sales will soon represent 20 percent of its
business. In a sign of its seriousness, the firm opened the Center for
Innovation and Security Solutions in Abu Dhabi in late 2014 to assist the
United Arab Emirates and design more efficient ways to partner with US allies.
Another firm, Raytheon, is seeing increased sales with Saudi Arabia, Israel,
Qatar and the UAE.
Grant Rogan, CEO of Blenheim Capital and a military sales expert, recently told
Foreign Policy that American weapons’ deals could soon skyrocket. “The Saudis
and Emiratis don’t trust the [Iranian nuclear] deal, no matter what the deal
is”, he said. He expected advanced radar systems “happening in Saudi
substantially faster if there’s no deal — or if it’s a deal that doesn’t defang
Iran.”
However, America’s dominance of global arms sales is being challenged like
never before. China is especially appealing to developing countries, keen on
buying “military set meals”, a starter pack of basic defense gear. South Sudan
has been a willing buyer despite the regime pursuing a brutal war against its
civilian population. Although Beijing has spent billions of dollars building
infrastructure in countless areas around the world in the last decade,
including Africa, growing environmental, debt and labor issues have increased
skepticism towards China’s development model.
“China’s leaders demonstrate little appreciation of the yawning gulfs that
separate African people from their rulers, even in newly democratic nations”,
writes journalist Howard French. Washington claims to believe in good
governance and freedom of speech but its policies have entrenched
authoritarianism across Africa under the guise of “fighting terrorism”.
China and America are now engaged in a race for African dollars, a continent
with resources and a growing middle class to embrace and exploit. Founder of
military contractor Blackwater, Erik Prince, works with Frontier Services Group
alongside China’s biggest state-owned firm, Citic Group, to get some of the
estimated $1 trillion Beijing intends to spend in Africa by 2025.
Despite China’s partial colonization of Africa, Washington has accelerated
covert operations in the last years to support, train and arm militaries and
rebel groups. American journalist Nick Turse, writing in his new book,
Tomorrow’s Battlefield: US Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa, explains how
George W. Bush and particularly Barack Obama have engendered a pivot towards
Africa “spanning almost fifty countries”. These include “drone assassinations
in Somalia, a proxy war in Mali, shadowy ops in Chad and antipiracy efforts in
the Gulf of Guinea.” US Africa Command (AFRICOM) is a secretive organization
with little strategic depth.
The effect, like in the Middle East, has been to hugely destabilize an already
fragile continent. At an Obama-led US-Africa summit in Washington in 2014,
African leaders were desperate for new weapons to fight wars that neatly fit
with Washington’s “war on terror”. Think Nigeria’s battle against Boko Haram,
one example of a US-backed army committing gross abuses of human rights in its
battle against extremism. The deadly reality is that American efforts have
failed spectacularly, causing suffering for African civilians and increasing
the chances of blowback on the American homeland.
The Global Peace Index released its 2015 report and found an increasingly
unstable world. Arms dealing by China and America are directly contributing to
this result and yet their involvement in this deadly trade is too rarely
acknowledged.
Past the rosy headlines of an Iranian and American détente lies the grim
reality for millions of civilians in Africa and the Middle East. For them,
Washington and Beijing will continue selling weapons to leaders for whom the
ideas of democracy and peace are foreign concepts.
About Antony Loewenstein
Antony Loewenstein is an independent journalist based in South Sudan, Guardian
columnist and author of the forthcoming book, Disaster Capitalism: Making A
Killing Out of Catastrophe (Verso, September)
