Weapons for Peace? The Unexpected Benefits of UNSC

MembershipAnirudha Vaddadi and Josi Sinagoga

The Study• Research Question: Do countries

leverage their political importance for weapons imports?• Specifically: Do countries on the United

Nations Security Council as rotating members receive more arms imports from Germany?• Results: Our analysis finds a robust

relationship between UNSC membership and the importation of German arms

Background

The International Arms Trade• Cold War Era• Post-Cold War

Era

Background, contd.Why Germany?• Position in Arms

Market• Political System• Exclusion from

the P5

Methodology• Dependent Variable: Heavy arms imports

from Germany, measured by Trend Indicator Value (TIV) - general arms imports are also used as a comparison• Independent Variable: UNSC Membership -

dichotomous indicator• Controls: year of election into UNSC, ln(GDP

per capita), ln(population), war, political regime, trade with Germany, German colony

Methodology, contd.

• Country and year fixed-effects• Clustered errors• Focusing regression analysis on

Africa due to its unique UNSC selection process• Regressions on individual

countries

Results

Results

ResultsCountries with statistically significant

relationships:Country UN Regional Group

Austria Western European and Others

Bangladesh Asia-Pacific

Brazil Latin American and Caribbean

Hungary Eastern European

Ireland Western European and Others

South Africa African

South Korea Asia-Pacific

Concluding Remarks • “Power

Resources”• Buying Peace

with Weapons• Future Research?