A report released Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) shows last year as the year with the highest-ever recorded revenue made by the largest weapons manufacturers globally.
The SIPRI report, according to AP News, showed that the top 100 of the biggest arms-producing companies across the world made a total $679 billion in 2024, a 5.9% increase in revenue, with a large concentration of these companies being based out of Europe and the U.S.
Of the top ten weapons manufacturers (by revenue for 2024), six were based in the U.S., two in Europe, and two in China.
The rise in arms manufacturing – and related revenue – comes as no surprise, looking back on 2024. Just examining International Insight’s coverage of geopolitics, we saw:
- A surge in gang violence in Haiti,
- A terrorist attack by ISIS in Moscow,
- Combat simulations between the U.S. and Philippines,
- The rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan,
- The heightening of tensions between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea,
- Over two years of the Russia-Ukraine war,
- The one-year anniversary of the war in Gaza,
- Rising tensions between India and China,
- The institution of martial law in South Korea, and much, much more that year.
Some of these events were government-backed acts of violence – combat simulations and wars. Some of these events were those that provoked accumulation of arms in preparation for a worse future – terrorist attacks and rising international tensions. And some… some events involved more dangerous groups at work.
To some degree, the rise in violence these past few years, paired with the numbers from the SIPRI report, brings to mind the Cold War.
The Cold War was a period defined not just by the increasingly contrasting ideologies of capitalism and communism, but with the proxy wars and arms race that were born of that ideological divide.
In recent years, we’ve seen a growing divide between conservatives and liberals – and not just in the U.S. From Austria and France to Sri Lanka and Japan, there’s been a global trend towards increasingly polarized politics and political candidates, which has become more prevalent, especially when it comes to right-leaning groups across the world.
And while that ideological divide may not be the driving force behind the trend of rising violence globally, it could potentially explain the increase in weapons production in terms of the different political sentiments that typically drive the accumulation of arms (think nationalistic sentiments, concerns over upholding democracy globally, etc.)
In addition, during the Cold War, we saw the end of multiple colonial governments with the independence of Vietnam from the French and both India and Pakistan from the British, and the rise of movements like the Chinese Communist Party that sought to create reform.
In recent times, we’re starting to see shifts yet again in the global order, including the recent protests in Nepal, Peru, and Madagascar, and the ousting of the al-Assads in Syria last year, all of which pushed for greater freedoms, more accountability, and less corruption at the highest levels of government – goals extremely similar to those of Cold War-era movements.
While we may not be in that same situation of dangerously high tensions again just yet, there is a pattern to be observed here: one where growing political polarization – at any level of government – and a shift in the global order to favor less authoritarian and dictatorial behavior coincides with arms races and a ramping-up of weapons manufacturing.
Is the latter just an innocent byproduct of the former? Or does that increase in demand for arms globally indeed hint at something more uncertain to come?
