Arms Race

An Arms Race is a technological competition that can be used to create military superiority systems (that support national security tasks).

• AKA: Military Competition, Strategic Competition, Weapons Race.
• Context:
  • It can typically accelerate weapons development through competitive pressures and security concerns.
  • It can typically increase military spending through defense budget expansion and research allocations.
  • It can typically advance military technology through innovation incentives and development deadlines.
  • It can typically reshape strategic balance through capability gaps and force projection ability.
  • It can typically influence national priority through resource reallocation and industrial mobilization.
  • ...
  • It can often strain international relations through security dilemmas and threat perceptions.
  • It can often drive technological spillovers into civilian sectors and commercial applications.
  • It can often create economic burdens through opportunity costs and fiscal constraints.
  • It can often intensify geopolitical tensions through alliance formation and regional instability.
  • It can often generate political pressures through public fear and nationalist sentiment.
  • ...
  • It can range from being a Regional Arms Race to being a Global Arms Race, depending on its geographical scope.
  • It can range from being a Conventional Arms Race to being a Weapons of Mass Destruction Arms Race, depending on its weapon type.
  • It can range from being a Limited Arms Race to being an Unrestricted Arms Race, depending on its resource commitment.
  • It can range from being a Bilateral Arms Race to being a Multilateral Arms Race, depending on its participant count.
  • It can range from being a Short-Term Arms Race to being a Long-Term Arms Race, depending on its duration.
  • ...
  • It can establish military doctrines through capability requirements and strategic necessity.
  • It can drive scientific research through applied problem solving and technical challenges.
  • It can shape diplomatic engagement through arms control negotiations and treaty formation.
  • It can affect domestic politics through electoral prioritys and budget debates.
  • It can influence international system structure through power distribution and alliance patterns.
  • ...
• Examples:
  • Historical Arms Race Categories, such as:
    • Naval Arms Races, such as:
      • Anglo-German Naval Arms Race (1898-1914) for sea power dominance.
      • Washington Naval Arms Race (1921-1922) for treaty limitation.
      • Cold War Naval Arms Race (1950-1990) for submarine supremacy.
    • Nuclear Arms Races, such as:
      • Early Nuclear Arms Race (1945-1960) for atomic weapon acquisition.
      • Thermonuclear Arms Race (1952-1970) for hydrogen bomb capability.
      • ICBM Arms Race (1957-1980) for missile delivery system.
    • Aerospace Arms Races, such as:
      • Space Race (1957-1969) for orbital capability demonstration.
      • Strategic Bomber Race (1946-1960) for nuclear delivery platform.
      • Air Defense System Race (1950-1980) for anti-aircraft capability.
  • Contemporary Arms Race Categories, such as:
    • Digital Arms Races, such as:
      • Cyber Arms Race (2000-Present) for digital attack capability.
      • Electronic Warfare Race (1990-Present) for signal disruption ability.
      • Information Warfare Competition (2010-Present) for narrative control capability.
    • Advanced Weapons Races, such as:
      • Hypersonic Weapon Race (2010-Present) for missile defense evasion.
      • Directed Energy Weapon Competition (2000-Present) for non-kinetic attack capability.
      • Autonomous System Arms Race (2015-Present) for unmanned warfare ability.
    • Intelligence Arms Races, such as:
      • Satellite Surveillance Race (1960-Present) for global observation capability.
      • AI Battlefield Analysis Competition (2020-Present) for combat information advantage.
      • Quantum Computing Race (2015-Present) for encryption breaking capability.
  • Emerging Arms Race Categories, such as:
    • AI-Powered Arms Races, such as:
      • AI Weaponry Race (2020-Present) for intelligent targeting system.
      • AI Strategic Planning Competition (2025-Present) for automated scenario analysis.
      • AI Swarm Combat Race (2025-Present) for coordinated attack pattern.
    • Biotechnology Arms Races, such as:
      • Biological Enhancement Race (2020-Present) for super-soldier development.
      • Biological Defense Competition (2020-Present) for pathogen protection capability.
      • Synthetic Biology Race (2025-Present) for engineered capability.
  • ...
• Counter-Examples:
  • Arms Control Regime, which establishes weapon limitations rather than capability escalation.
  • Military Cooperation, which promotes shared capability development instead of competitive advantage.
  • Peace Movement, which advocates for conflict resolution over military preparation.
  • Disarmament Initiative, which reduces weapon stockpiles rather than expanding them.
  • Technology Sharing Agreement, which enables cooperative development instead of secretive advancement.
• See: Military Technology, Offensive Weapon, Defensive Weapon, Military-Industrial Complex, Security Dilemma, Deterrence Theory, Strategic Stability, Escalation Ladder, Military Doctrine.

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References

• https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/26/new-global-arms-race-west-military-spending-conflict
  • NOTES:
    • In 2022, global military spending increased 3.7% to a new high of $2.24 trillion. Europe saw its steepest increase in over 30 years.
    • The US frames China as a "threat" mainly as a reaction to China freeing itself from US economic dominion.
    • Ukraine is seen not as an effort to restore law, but as part of a West vs Russia power struggle.

2023

• (Wikipedia, 2023) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_race Retrieved:2023-9-5.
  • An arms race occurs when two or more groups compete in military superiority. It consists of a competition between two or more states to have superior armed forces, concerning production of weapons, the growth of a military, and the aim of superior military technology. Unlike a sporting race, which constitutes a specific event with winning interpretable as the outcome of a singular project, arms races constitute spiralling systems of on-going and potentially open-ended behavior.

    The existing scholarly literature is divided as to whether arms races correlate with war. International-relations scholars explain arms races in terms of the security dilemma, engineering spiral models, states with revisionist aims, and deterrence models.

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