Version 1
: Received: 15 March 2021 / Approved: 16 March 2021 / Online: 16 March 2021 (14:15:25 CET)
How to cite:
Palavenis, D. Swiss Defence Industry in the Global Arms Trade – Successes and Challenges. Preprints2021, 2021030427. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202103.0427.v1
Palavenis, D. Swiss Defence Industry in the Global Arms Trade – Successes and Challenges. Preprints 2021, 2021030427. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202103.0427.v1
Palavenis, D. Swiss Defence Industry in the Global Arms Trade – Successes and Challenges. Preprints2021, 2021030427. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202103.0427.v1
APA Style
Palavenis, D. (2021). Swiss Defence Industry in the Global Arms Trade – Successes and Challenges. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202103.0427.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Palavenis, D. 2021 "Swiss Defence Industry in the Global Arms Trade – Successes and Challenges" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202103.0427.v1
Abstract
When we talk about the Defence Industry (DI), arms transfers, and military expenditures we mostly refer to data accumulated by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). In the SIPRI Top 20 list of largest exporters of major arms for 2019, small states hold consecutive positions: Israel takes 8th place, Switzerland is 13th, and Sweden, Norway, and Belarus place 15th, 17th, and 20th respectively. The author analyses the Swiss DI case due to several reasons; its place in SIPRI Top, its sharp rise of Swiss arms exports in the recent year, its Swiss neutrality strategy, the country’s multilingual society, and its all-government approach to the arms industry, though still contributing to the limited scholarly studies on contemporary Swiss DI. This paper aims to explore Swiss DI and its strategies, to identify the country’s defence and security policy influence towards DI, and to discuss the Swiss DI stance and future perspectives in the context of the global arms trade. At the same time, this paper also highlights Swiss DI successes and failures that could be of significant use to other small states aiming to develop or enhance their relevant DIs.
Keywords
Switzerland; defence industry; defence policy; the Federal Office for Defence Procurement; RUAG; arms export
Subject
Social Sciences, Political Science
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
