To promote debate and help improve U.S. decision making about arms sales, the Cato Institute has released its 3rd edition of the annual Arms Sales Risk Index. By identifying the factors linked to negative outcomes of arms sales, such as dispersion, diversion, and the misuse of weapons by recipients, the index provides a way to measure the risk involved with selling arms to another nation. Though by no means an exact science, the Arms Sales Risk Index can help policymakers incorporate the risks and make better decisions about which nations should and should not receive American weapons.

Budgetary and strategic inertia has impeded the development of a U.S. military best suited to deal with future challenges. Over the past several decades, the military has repeatedly answered the call to arms as American foreign policy privileges the use of force over other instruments of power and influence. The era of near endless war has now stretched into its third decade. In a new paper, Cato scholars Eric Gomez, Christopher A. Preble, Lauren Sander, & Brandon Valeriano argue that Washington should realign national security objectives and motivate allies and partners to become more capable as America’s relative military advantage wanes and the focus inevitably turns to domestic priorities, including public health.