After decades of arming some of the Middle East\u2019s least responsible states, there are tentative indications Washington may finally be rethinking its approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Upon taking office, one of President Joe Biden\u2019s first foreign policy decisions was to impose a temporary freeze on weapons sales<\/a> to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, pending a review of their potential effects on the ongoing Yemen conflict<\/a>. And at the end of February, his administration followed up by imposing sanctions on multiple individuals involved in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, while also indicating that a more permanent ban<\/a> on the sale of offensive weapons to the Saudis may be in the offing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These are encouraging moves, although their ultimate outcomes<\/a> remain to be seen. But the problems with weapons sales go beyond the Persian Gulf: As American companies pursue their efforts to arm much of the world, a record volume of defense exports has led to increasing humanitarian and strategic costs for the United States. The review of sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE therefore presents an opportunity to reassess our broader approach to the arms trade \u2014 one the Biden administration should not hesitate to seize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The task will not be easy. Weapons exports are big business, and the vast network of defense companies and government bureaucracy that has grown around them will make changing the status quo a complicated affair. This is not to mention the fact that Biden is taking office after arguably the most enthusiastically pro-arms sales administration in history, one which leaves as its legacy the relaxation of export restrictions<\/a> and the identification<\/a> of \u201ceconomic security\u201d (read: ginning up business for weapons makers) as an explicit goal of U.S. arms transfer policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even before President Donald Trump, foreign military sales were putting large quantities of weapons in indiscriminate hands. In Yemen, many of the munitions that have been used to devastating effect on combatants and civilians alike \u2014 including the laser-guided bomb that killed 40 children on a school bus \u2014 were authorized for export<\/a> and sold during Barack Obama\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And in one of the first export decisions of his term, Biden\u2019s State Department approved<\/a> a $200 million sale of missiles to Egypt mere hours after condemning Cairo\u2019s detention of a prominent dissident\u2019s relatives. The Philippines also receives<\/a> hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. weaponry, where President Rodrigo Duterte has overseen thousands of extrajudicial killings, political arrests and related human rights violations.<\/p>\n\n\n\t