Defence Expenditures, Arms Procurement and Corruption in Sub-Saharan Africa

Susan Willett

Review of African Political Economy, 2009, vol. 36, issue 121, 335-351

Abstract: In November 2007, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) launched its ‘Transparency in Defence Expenditure’, or TIDE, initiative, designed to fight corruption in military expenditures and arms procurement. Its initial focus was on sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), a region regarded as the most corrupt in the world. By focusing solely on the bribe-takers in SSA while studiously avoiding reference to the bribe-makers, DFID has opened itself up to accusations of double standards and hypocrisy. Corruption in arms procurement in SSA represents a small segment of a complex global pipeline that links Western arms firms and licensing governments to corrupt foreign officials and offshore financial institutions; tackling this web of corruption requires major reforms at the level of global governance, not just in governance procedures in SSA. With an analysis limited by inappropriate neoliberal methodologies and tainted by the alleged corrupt practices of British arms firms operating within SSA, DFID has been forced to put its TIDE initiative on the back burner.

Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1080/03056240903210754

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Review of African Political Economy is currently edited by Graham Harrison, Branwen Gruffydd Jones, Claire Mercer, Nicolas Pons-Vignon, Aurelia Segatti and Ray Bush

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