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NATO’s new alliance-wide spending target of 5 per cent of GDP sends a strong political message, but at what cost?

This backgrounder investigates the circumstances behind a wave of consolidation in the arms industry. To do this, it uses data on mergers and acquisitions among European (excluding Russia) and North American companies appearing in the SIPRI Top 100 in the 10-year period 2014–23.

The Ukrainian arms industry has seen prodigious growth and modernization since Russia's invasion, but its long-term viability still hangs in the balance.

Observers have voiced concern about what they perceive as a disconnect between the foreign policy rhetoric of the Biden administration and its foreign policy practice. This WritePeace blog explores what light SIPRI data on arms transfers can cast on the discussion.

This blog explores how Poland is using Ukraine war-linked arms and ammunition contracts in a bid to accelerate the modernization and expansion of its arms industry.

In the latest ranking of the world’s largest arms-producing and military services companies (the SIPRI Top 100), published in December 2022, two firms based in the United States—Peraton and Amentum—had recently been acquired by private equity firms. Both their arms sales were considered to have a high degree of uncertainty.

Japan is undergoing the most significant changes to its security strategy since the end of World War II. What is behind these changers, what do they mean for Indo-Pacific security, and what challenges lie ahead for their implementation?

As coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused the most severe economic crisis since the 1930s, could we witness a new phase of consolidation within the Western and Central European arms industry? This SIPRI Essay gives an early glimpse at where these three factors stand after the ‘great lockdown’. It proposes that the European arms industry may be at the outset of a larger consolidation movement.

This topical backgrounder puts a spotlight on armament developments in Saudi Arabia, the country with the highest levels of military spending and arms imports in the Middle East. It aims to contribute to the efforts by SIPRI to gain a better understanding of the impact of militarization on security, conflict, peace and development in the region.

The military is often one of the most corrupt sectors of government, with arms procurement particularly susceptible to corruption. Avoiding this requires transparency and accountability in military spending.

Germany is, once again, debating the future of its arms industry, with long-held state support for arms production within Germany appearing to crumble.

Arms production was the backbone of the Soviet-type command economy systems in East Central Europe (ECE), but with the collapse of the Eastern bloc, arms makers faced a drastic disruption in their economic, political and social environment.

Western governments and defence companies are adapting to the effects of the 2008 economic crisis by devising new strategies to increase international arms sales.

The EU's attempt to fight the economic crisis by shifting research money to the defence sector is highly questionable.

The arms race to the bottom—when states willingly arm themselves even when evidence suggests they should disarm—has begun to shape states' military spending.