Weaving our Worlds has monthly study in struggle conversations and this month we focused on the military industrial complex and the global arms trade.
“Military-industrial complex” describes the close relationship between military, corporate defense industry, and government – an iron triangle of connected interests.The MIC intertwines with the violence of imperialism, racial capitalism, the militarization of policing, and the expansion of surveillance technologies — turning the US into the world’s arms dealer. The global arms trade is US $204 billion annually, with 79 percent of the whole international arms trade controlled by the US.
Our list of resources breaks down the military industrial complex and how it’s evolving, the destructive global arms trade, and the violence wreaked on communities around the world. Here are some snippets from what we read:
About the Global Arms Trade:
Ukraine has became the world’s largest importer of major arms. Arms exports by the USA are constantly increasing, and the US controls almost half of global arms exports. For the first time in decades, the largest share of US arms is now going to Europe, but the top single recipient of US arms is Saudi Arabia. France is the world’s second largest arms supplier, mostly going to India and Qatar. Israel’s arms imports come from USA and Germany. (Source: SIPRI Arms Transfers Database, Global Trends, 2025 here)
The MIC and Climate Justice:
“The US military is the single largest industrial consumer of oil and gas and one of the largest polluters in the history of the world. Between 2001 and 2019, the US war in Afghanistan caused the emission of 1.2 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases and resulted in deforestation and the toxic burning of munitions.” (Source: We Can’t Fight the Climate Crisis Without Fighting the Military-Industrial Complex by Ariel Gold, August 2021 here)
The MIC is evolving: Tech and the Military
“This year’s record US defense budget is around $311 billion, exceeding the total amount spent on defense by every other country. In 2024, just five companies—Lockheed Martin, RTX, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, and Boeing —claimed the vast bulk of Pentagon contracts. But an assortment of Silicon Valley defense tech firms, like Anduril, have begun forming a new military industrial complex.” (Source: Welcome to the New Military-Industrial Complex by Michael T. Klare, Feb 2025 here)
The Economy of Information Technology
“The Obama administration had from the outset forged a long-term love-in with Silicon Valley. The regular exchange of senior staff between the top branches of government and the boards of big tech companies has produced a spinning door between Big Tech and the White House – evidence of an intensifying alliance and collaboration between the information-tech economy and the wider military–industrial complex.” (Source: The Media–Technology–Military Industrial Complex by Justin Schlosberg, 2017 here)
The Militarization of Borders:
The US is exporting its border militarization everywhere. “Everywhere, if you shut your eyes and stand in front of a map and just point at anywhere in the world, you would most likely point to a country where the United States exports its border militarization. That’s how vast it is. There are certain places where it’s more concentrated – the western hemisphere of course – but it’s worldwide across the continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe even.” (Source: Border Militarization and Empire: An Interview with Todd Miller, April 2018 here)
Europe’s Role and the GCC:
“Saudi Arabia and the UAE are among the largest customers of the European arms industry. Several of their major weapons systems used in Yemen have been made in Europe, such as Eurofighter, Tornados, and MK 80 series bombs. Despite major violations, numerous companies from Italy, Germany, the UK, Spain and France continue to arm and profit from the Saudi Arabia/UAE coalition attacks on Yemen.” (Source: War in Yemen, Made in Europe by the European Network Against Arms Trade here)
Canada’s Weapons Export is Rooted in Settler-Colonialism:
Canada is a key player in global empire. “Key components of Canada’s founding – settler capitalism and the colonial imagination – remained central to Canada’s engagements in the world. As the people of Africa, Asia, and Latin America fought for freedom from European colonial or neocolonial authority, Canada consistently sided with colonial powers and undermined those struggles for freedom. Today, Canada has become one of the world’s largest exporters of weapons.” (Source: Canada in the World by Tyler Shipley, September 2020, here)
Israel x Latin America:
Israeli arms industry has devastated the world. “Since the 1970s, for example, Israeli weapons, technologies, counterinsurgency doctrines, and military advisers are exported to many Latin American countries. The commercialization and export of methods of domination—developed and tested on Palestinians —found willing buyers in US-backed Cold War-era Latin America, like El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. By the 1990s, there were more than half a million deaths, disappearances, and refugees from Central America. In the process, Israel became the world’s largest exporter of arms per capita.” (Source: A Future of Walls or Liberation by Alex Avina, Dec 2023, here)
NATO’s Bloody History:
The global arms trade is intertwined with imperialist & capitalist extraction across Africa. “Considering the public media attention and concern about possible expansion of NATO, it is worth reminding people about NATO’s bloody history in Africa. In the 1950’s when most Africans were still colonial subjects, they had absolutely no control over the utilization of their soil for militaristic ends. Virtually the whole of North Africa was turned into a sphere of operations for NATO.” (Source: NATO and Africa: A relationship of colonial violence and structural White supremacy by Djibo Sobukwe, February 2022 here)
A Warfare Mentality:
“It’s not just the business and military interests. We have all the people who are dependent on these expenditures of public money for the military. This includes all the people in all the towns that got the military bases and people who work at the bases. All the people in the academy who get federal grants and contracts to do classified and unclassified research and development. The MIC has had a huge cultural effect on this country. We have a permanent warfare mentality.” (Source: From Military Industrial Complex to Prison Industrial Complex, In conversation with Dr. Ruth Wilson Gilmore, 2012 here)
Videos and Podcasts:
Canadian Arms Exports and Militarization of Territory
Coalition of the Billing: An Interview with Jeremy Scahill
Short animated video on the Military Industrial Complex
How is Israel’s arms industry profiting from the war on Gaza?
Podcast on Persistent Surveillance
Additional Resources:
Corruption in the Global Arms Trade: An Overview
Emissions Within the Military Industrial Complex: Arms Manufacturers
The World’s Biggest Arms Exporters
Dismantle the military industrial complex!
Check out organizations like World Beyond War in Canada and Dissenters in the US. Organize to demilitarize and defund the imperialist war machine. No more dollars for violent wars, prisons, police, weapons, and walls. We have everything we need to keep ourselves safe and to repair collaborative relationships with the earth and people around the world.