Arms race
A competition between states for superior armed forces.
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Amitchell125 · CC BY-SA 4.0
An arms race is a contest between two or more countries to build stronger armed forces, focusing on producing more weapons, expanding their military, and achieving better military technology. Unlike a regular race, which is a single event with a clear winner, an arms race is an ongoing, escalating cycle that can continue indefinitely.
The nuclear arms race is one well-known example. Scholars disagree on whether these races actually lead to war. Experts in international relations explain arms races using ideas like the security dilemma, spiral models, states that want to change the existing order, and deterrence models.
Pre–First World War naval arms race
Examples include the naval arms race between the United Kingdom and Germany from 1897 to 1914. British fears over Germany's growing navy led to an expensive competition to build Dreadnought-class battleships. This tense race ended with the start of World War I. After that war, a new arms race began among the victorious Allies in the early 1920s, which was paused by the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. Smaller naval races also happened during this time between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, the Ottomans and Greece, France and Italy, the United States and Japan in the 1930s, and among Brazil, Argentina, and Chile.
Nuclear arms race
The nuclear arms race took place during the Cold War, a tense period between the Soviet Union and the United States, along with some other countries. While the Cold War began in the late 1940s due to post-WWII geopolitical tensions, the nuclear arms race escalated after it had already started, becoming a major driver and consequence of the conflict. Each side believed the other had an advantage, such as a missile gap or bomber gap, leading to huge spending on weapons and the buildup of massive nuclear stockpiles.
Proxy wars were fought around the world, like in the Middle East, Korea, and Vietnam, where the superpowers used conventional weapons against each other. After the Soviet Union dissolved and the Cold War ended, tensions eased, and both countries reduced their nuclear arsenals. Charles Glaser argues that many arms races were wasteful, harming political relations, raising the risk of war, and preventing countries from reaching their goals.
Quick Facts
- Known for
- Competition between states to achieve superior armed forces and military technology
- Examples
- Pre–First World War naval arms race
- nuclear arms race
- artificial intelligence arms race
- Key concept
- Spiralling systems of on-going and potentially open-ended behavior
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
From 1897 to 1914, a naval arms race between the United Kingdom and Germany took place. British concern about rapid increase in German naval power resulted in a costly building competition of Dreadnought-class ships.
This tense arms race lasted until 1914, the outbreak of the First World War. After the war, a new arms race developed among the victorious Allies in the early 1920s, which was temporarily ended by the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. In addition to the British and Germans, contemporaneous but smaller naval arms races also broke out between Russia and the Ottoman Empire; the Ottomans and Greece; France and Italy; the United States and Japan in the 1930s; and Brazil, Argentina, and Chile.
The nuclear arms race occurred during the Cold War, a period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union and the United States that began in the late 1940s. The nuclear arms race was not a main cause of the Cold War's start but rather escalated after it had already begun, serving as both a consequence and a driver of the conflict.
Reader's Guide
Arms races represent a central concept in international relations, with scholarly debate over whether they correlate with war. Charles Glaser argues that numerous cases of arms races were suboptimal, as they entailed a waste of resources, damaged political relations, increased the probability of war, and hindered states in accomplishing their goals. However, arms races can be optimal for security-seeking states in situations when the offense-defense balance favors offense, when a declining state faces a rising adversary, and when advances in technology make existing weapons obsolete for the power that had an advantage in the existing weaponry. The term also extends beyond military contexts: an evolutionary arms race is a system where two populations are evolving in order to continuously one-up members of the other population, related to the Red Queen's Hypothesis.
In technology, there are close analogues to the arms races between parasites and hosts, such as the arms race between writers of computer viruses and antivirus software, or spammers against Internet service providers and E-mail software writers. More generically, the term is used to describe any competition where there is no absolute goal, only the relative goal of staying ahead of the other competitors in rank or knowledge. An arms race may also imply futility as the competitors spend a great deal of time and money, yet with neither side gaining an advantage over the other.
More in Warfare & Military History
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Arms race (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the Codexery glossary, each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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