Arms transfers to the Third World, 1971-85 /

Another in the series of authoritative studies of the international arms trade under the auspices of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)-one of the major sources of armament data in the world. It updates SIPRI's original voluminous The Arms Trade with the Third World (1971), and is itself the second in a trilogy of studies compiled by Brzoska and Ohlson. The first of these dealt with Arms Production in the Third World (1986), and the third will deal with possibilities of arms transfer controls. As in prior volumes, following an introductory overview of the arms market, the authors treat the demand and supply segments of the market, detailing regional arms preferences and the policies and decision-making processes of the ever growing list of arms exporters. Contrasts are drawn effectively between patterns prevalent in the seller's market of the 1970s, and the buyer's market of the '80s. Although most of the basic patterns are familiar to those who have studied arms transfers over the past two decades, there are many new insights about specific incidents and overall trends, as well as attention to newer and/or smaller suppliers, such as China, Yugoslavia, Brazil, North Korea, Israel, and Singapore. Seven major appendixes present data and registries of specific intergovernmental acquisition of ``major weapons,'' i.e., major systems such as aircraft, armor, and artillery. Data sources, price estimation, and comparison of arms trade statistics are treated as well.-F.S. Pearson, University of Missouri-St. Louis