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Military Expenditures and Socio-Economic Development in Africa: a Summary of Recent Empirical Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Robert E. Looney
Robert E. Looney
Affiliation:
Professor, National Security Affairs, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California.
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Extract

Africa's dismal economic performance in recent years has spawned a rather vigorous debate over where to lay the blame for the contonuing crisis. The United Nations and assoviated agencies cite factors outside the control of indivedual fovernlents, and stress the detrimental inpact if the poor condition of the world economy, notably the decline in commodity prices and foreign aid. By way of contrast, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund favour the school of thought that lays blame more directly on internal policy-making. Here the actions taken by government to distort, for example, exchange rates and agricultural prices, and to expand unprofitable state enterprises, are seen as the main reasons for the continent's economic decline.

Type
Africana
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , June 1988 , pp. 319 - 325
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

Page 319 note 1 The debate is summarised and empirically tested in Wheeler, David, ‘Sources of Stagnation in Sub-Saharan Africa’, in World Development (Oxford), 1984, pp. 1–23.Google Scholar

Page 319 note 2 Luckham, Robin, ‘Militarisation in Africa’, in Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, World Armaments and Disarmament, SIPRI Yearbook, 1985 (Stockholm, 1985), pp. 295–328.Google Scholar

Page 319 note 3 See, for example, the debate in Armed Forces and Society (Cabin John, Md.) on ‘Defense Expenditures and Economic Growth in Developing Countries’ between Peter C. Frederiksen and Robert E. Looney, Summer 1983, pp. 633–45, and Winter 1985, pp. 298–301, and Nicole Ball, Winter 1985, pp. 291–7.

Page 319 note 4 Cf. Robert E. Looney, ‘The Role of Military Expenditures in the African Economic Crisis’, Monterey, California, 1987. More general conclusions can be drawn from: Looney, Robert E. and Frederiksen, P. C., ‘Defense Expenditures, External Public Debt. and Growth in Developing Countries’, in Journal of Peace Research (Oslo), 12 1986, pp. 329–38;CrossRefGoogle ScholarLooney, Robert E., ‘Impact of Arms Production on Third World Distribution and Growth’, in Economic Development and Cultural Change (Chicago), 1988,Google Scholar‘Economic Environments Affecting Third World Arms Imports’, California Seminar,Rand Corporation,Santa Monica,26 February 1988,Google Scholar‘Impact of Military Expenditures on Third World Debt’, in Canadian Journal of Development Studies (Ottawa), 1987, pp. 7–26, and ‘Conventional Wisdom vs. Empirical Reality: the case of third world defense expenditures and arms production’, U.S. A.I.D. Workshop on Security and Development in Developing Countries, Washington, D.C., 9 March 1988.Google Scholar

Page 320 note 1 Looney and Frederiksen, 1986, loc. cit.

Page 320 note 2 Arlinghaus, Bruce, Military Development in Africa (Boulder, 1984), p. 11.Google Scholar

Page 320 note 3 Cf. Hestman, H. R., ‘The Potential Role of the Military in National Development’, in Militaria (Milan), 1978, pp. 1–11.Google Scholar

Page 321 note 1 Source: Rothstein, op. cit. p. 30, based on judgements about country placements that were made during May–June 1984.

Page 322 note 1 Rothstein, Robert, ‘The “Security Dilemma” and the “Poverty Trap” in the Third World’, Fletcher School and University of London Conference on Third-World Military Expenditures,London,March 1986, pp. 27–9. Clearly, variables such as legitimacy and effectiveness are difficult to estimate because they require subjective judgement by analysts, and the same is true for the degree of threat (external or internal) perceived by ruling élites.Google Scholar

Page 322 note 2 See Looney, ‘The Role of Military Expenditures in the African Economic Crisis’, copies of which are available from the author, if so requested.

Page 322 note 3 The data are for 1980, taken from Sivert, Ruth Leger, World Military and Social Expenditures, 1983 (Washington, D.C., 1983). The military data used in the regressions are also from this source.Google Scholar

Page 323 note 1 Data are from the World Bank, World Development Report (New York), various issues.

Page 325 note 1 Rothstein, op. cit.

Page 325 note 2 See, for example, the arguments presented in Organski, A. F. K. and Kugler, J., The War Ledger (Chicago, 1980).Google Scholar