Defence industries in Arab states: players and strategies

This Chaillot Paper analyses how Arab states strive to achieve strategic, economic and symbolic goals through indigenous armaments production, with some countries in the region showing a new determination to become more self-reliant technologically as well as operationally in this domain.

The paper focuses in particular on how efforts undertaken by Arab states to develop national defence technological and industrial bases (DTIBs) entail new relationships with defence suppliers whereby Arab states that were formerly customers are evolving into arms manufacturers in their own right – a phenomenon that also marks a shifting strategic balance in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.