US sold weapons to majority of authoritarian regimes in 2022: Report

New Delhi: The Biden administration sold weapons to at least 57 per cent of the world’s authoritarian regimes in 2022, according to analysis published by American publication The Intercept.

Since Biden came into office in 2021, he has described a “battle between democracies and autocracies” in which the US and other democracies strive to create a peaceful world. However, analysis of the government data shows that the Biden administration helped increase the military power of a large number of authoritarian countries.

The American publication noted that Washington has accounted for around 40 per cent of global arms sales each year since the end of the Cold War.

It added that, according to a classification system devised at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, the US distributed weapons in 2022 to at least 48 of 84 (57 per cent) countries described by the ‘Varieties of Democracy’ project as being under autocratic or authoritarian rule.

US weapons exports are typically divided into two categories: foreign military sales (FMS) and direct commercial sales (DCS).

The US government acts as an intermediary for FMS acquisitions. It buys the materiel from a company first and then delivers the goods to the foreign recipient.

DCS acquisitions are more straightforward. They’re the result of an agreement between a US company and a foreign government. Both categories of sales require the government’s approval.

According to The Intercept, country-level data for last year’s DCS authorisations was released in late April through the State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. FMS figures for fiscal year 2022 were released earlier this year through the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency.

Bilateral sales

According to government data, the United States sold arms in FMS deals to 142 countries and territories last year, producing $85 billion in bilateral sales.

In Biden’s first full year as president, US weapons sales to foreign countries amounted to $206 billion – surpassing a Trump-era record of $192 billion.

The US has been a key weapons supplier to Ukraine throughout its conflict with Russia.

The Intercept noted the multibillion-dollar effort to train and equip Ukraine doesn’t fully explain the dramatic rise in total arms sales last year, let alone to autocracies.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine didn’t occur until five months into fiscal year 2022, and much of the assistance from the United States to Ukraine took the form of grants (not sales) and the transfer of materiel from Pentagon stockpiles through the presidential drawdown authority.

With inputs from agencies

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