Arms race

<p>An arms race occurs when two or more groups compete in military superiority. It consists of a competition between two or more <a href="/facts/State_(polity)/7ggBzTSk">states</a> to have superior armed forces, concerning production of <a href="/facts/Weapon/fV9QfoBh">weapons</a>, the growth of a <a href="/facts/Military/kgNmLUnN">military</a>, and the aim of superior <a href="/facts/Military_technology/prfeC3v2">military technology</a>. Unlike a <a href="/facts/Racing/XC7Bj6lo">sporting race</a>, which constitutes a specific event with winning interpretable as the outcome of a singular <a href="/facts/Project/7pXnTsmF">project</a>, arms races constitute spiralling <a href="/facts/System/hmqQ4ASX">systems</a> of on-going and potentially open-ended behavior.
</p><p>The existing scholarly literature is divided as to whether arms races correlate with <a href="/facts/War/MPluTbJ0">war</a>. International-relations scholars explain arms races in terms of the <a href="/facts/Security_dilemma/srue0JHF">security dilemma</a>, engineering <a href="/facts/Spiral_model/hp10Hx87">spiral models</a>, states with <a href="/facts/Revisionist_state/3dM5bY8D">revisionist aims</a>, and <a href="/facts/Deterrence_theory/rllU6aJf">deterrence models</a>.
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Arms race open-in-new

Arms race