Indefensible: Seven Myths that Sustain the Global Arms Trade - Hardcover

Holden, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1783605669 ISBN 13: 9781783605668

Publisher: Zed Books, 2017

Synopsis

Although there is often opposition to individual wars, many people continue to believe that the arms industry is necessary in some form: to safeguard our security, provide jobs, or stimulate the economy. For these reasons, not only conservatives, but many progressives and liberals, are able to rationalize supporting it. But is the arms industry truly as essential as we’ve been led to believe?   Indefensible puts forward a devastating challenge to this conventional wisdom, debunking many myths about the industry that has somehow managed to normalize the existence of the most savage weapons of mass destruction ever known.
 
Editor Paul Holden, who himself has written extensively about arms deals, has compiled the essential handbook for those who want to counter the arguments put forth by the industry and its supporters. Deploying statistics, case studies, and irrefutable evidence to demonstrate how the arguments in favor of the arms trade are fundamentally flawed, both factually and logically, the contributors to this volume clearly show that far from protecting us, the arms trade undermines our security by fanning the flames of war, terrorism, and global instability.
 
Bringing together a range of distinguished experts and activists, including Andrew Feinstein, author of After the Party and The Shadow World, Indefensible not only reveals the complex dangers associated with the arms trade but offers positive ways in which we can combat the arms trade’s malignant influence, reclaim our democracies, and reshape our economies in the interests of peace and human well-being.
 
 

About this title

About the Author

Paul Holden is a historian and researcher whose books include Who Rules South Africa?, The Devil in the Detail: How the Arms Deal Changed Everything, and The Arms Deal in Your
Pocket. He currently works with Corruption Watch UK.
 

Review

“A ground-breaking effort in myth-busting, bringing together the foremost scholars on the global arms trade to untangle the web of lies surrounding this deadly industry. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand the players who make modern warfare and all its attendant suffering possible." (Nick Turse, author of Kill Anything that Moves)

“Holden and his colleagues’ measured, succinct, and cogent analysis of the shallowness of conventional wisdom is invaluable. This excellent book deserves the widest possible readership.” (Nicholas Gilby, author of Deception in High Places: A History of Bribery in Britain’s Arms Trade)

“Bristling with facts, figures, and incisive case studies, Indefensible shines a bright light on the dark underbelly of the global arms trade. Cynicism, corruption, and sheer stupidity have produced a world awash with weapons. Holden and his collaborators show how we got into this mess and offer a way out.” (Andrew J. Bacevich, author of America’s War for the Greater Middle East)

“Indefensible not only explains what is wrong with the arms trade, but also provides us with the tools needed for change.” (Wendela de Vries, Dutch Campaign Against the Arms Trade)

“Debunks the myths commonly used to defend the indefensible. The author helps us to recognize those myths on the basis of a breathtaking, well-researched array of cases, and leads us to the conclusion that change is not only needed, but is actually possible.”

(Ana Gomes MEP, Member of the EU Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs)

“Essential reading for all those who believe that there are alternatives to the incessant cycle of wars and conflict. It is a calm and systematic analysis, which leaves the reader in no doubt that the arms trade can and must be challenged.”

(Anna Macdonald, Control Arms)

“In an unflinching assessment of the arguments that support the global trade in conventional weapons, Holden holds this new book up to its title, finding such myths to be indefensible.” (Arms Control Today)

About this edition

• Publisher: Zed Books
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1783605669
• ISBN 13: 9781783605668
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256