Arms race

Arms Race: This happens when two or more groups try to become stronger than each other in military power.

• Competition: The groups compete by making more weapons, growing their military, and developing better military technology.
• Ongoing Process: Unlike a race in sports, which has a clear start and finish, an arms race is a continuous and possibly never-ending process.

Views on Arms Races:

• Some scholars (experts) disagree on whether arms races lead to war.
• International Relations Scholars: They study arms races using different ideas like:
  • Security Dilemma: When one group's actions to increase security make other groups feel less secure.
  • Spiral Models: The idea that actions by one group lead to actions by another, creating a spiral of increasing tension.
  • Revisionist Aims: When a state wants to change the current situation.
  • Deterrence Models: The idea that having a strong military can prevent others from attacking.

Naval Arms Race (1897-1914)

From 1897 to 1914, the United Kingdom and Germany competed to build more powerful navies. The UK was worried about Germany's growing naval power, leading to a costly race to build Dreadnought-class ships. This competition lasted until 1914 when World War I started. After the war, the victorious Allies began a new arms race, which was temporarily stopped by the Washington Naval Treaty.

Other Naval Arms Races:

• Russia and the Ottoman Empire
• Ottomans and Greece
• France and Italy
• United States and Japan in the 1930s
• Brazil, Argentina, and Chile

Nuclear Arms Race

During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union (now Russia) raced to build more nuclear weapons. This was a key part of the Cold War and led to huge spending on weapons and large stockpiles of nuclear arms. Both sides worried about having fewer weapons than the other, leading to terms like the "missile gap" and "bomber gap." Proxy wars were fought in places like the Middle East, Korea, and Vietnam, where the two superpowers' conventional (non-nuclear) weapons were used against each other. After the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union, tensions eased, and both countries reduced their nuclear arsenals.

Arguments on Arms Races:

• Charles Glaser argues that many arms races wasted resources, harmed political relations, increased the chance of war, and hindered states from achieving their goals. However, they might be useful for security when:
  • The offense-defense balance favors offense.
  • A declining state faces a rising adversary.
  • Technological advances make old weapons obsolete.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Arms Race

An AI arms race involves countries developing and deploying advanced military AI systems, like lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS). Since the mid-2010s, analysts have noted such a race between global superpowers, driven by increasing geopolitical and military tensions. This AI arms race is sometimes compared to a new Cold War between the US and China.