by David Lincove
Readers of the Peace and Change blog who are interested in data sources of conventional and nuclear armaments will be interested in the bibliographic guide to key sources linked in this blog post. In the guide, I link to the most extensive, systematic publications with statistical information compiled from publicly available sources. Most are freely available on the internet. The data sources are used to cite numerical information, often illustrated over a period of time, as evidence in research. In addition, the sources generated studies assessing and comparing quantitative methodologies in armaments. For example, after UN Register of Conventional Arms became operational in 1992, researchers, such as Malcolm Chalmers, Siemon Wezeman, and Paul Holtom, studied its development and effectiveness to achieve its purpose of reducing secrecy and building confidence among nations to help maintain peace. The internet has enhanced the public exposure of arms data, although the complications assessing and comparing the raw data from different countries limits its impact except for experts on armaments.
See “Key Sources of Multinational Data on Conventional and Nuclear Armaments” Reference and User Services Quarterly 58, 1(Fall 2018): 11-15 at
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