The US comes down with a heavy hand, and rightly so, on any attempt to sneak narcotics into the country but has no qualms about having blood on its hands by blithely exporting arms to all and sundry with an eye on propping up its economy as well as to fight its own enemies, often perceived, sometimes directly and often through its proxies. At 43%, the US has been maintaining its numero uno position, with Ukraine hogging the honours at the other end of the spectrum, namely imports (https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2025/ukraine-worlds-biggest-arms-importer-united-states-dominance-global-arms-exports-grows-russian). The US President Donald Trump’s vow, on his second inauguration, to end all wars across the globe would carry conviction if he takes the bold decision not to run with the hare and hunt with the hound. You cannot wish for peace when, at the same time, you keep on arming the war-torn or war-prone countries to the teeth.

Worst is the case of countries which, while not fighting any wars, their own or others, produce deadly weapons solely for export revenues. Remember Sweden, whose Bofors guns roiled the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in a kickback controversy leading to his ouster at the hustings? Defence imports have been a fecund source of funds for ruling parties in the form of kickbacks—over-invoicing and sharing a generous sliver of the extra amount with the key ruling functionaries of the importing country. Narendra Modi, the incumbent Prime Minister of India, nipped the possible charge of kickbacks in the bud by going for a government-to-government........

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