Arms industry as a commercial determinant of health

Experts are urging the medical profession to confront the global arms industry as the UK and other NATO nations dramatically increase defence spending to counter growing global aggressions, one under-recognised aspect of security debates is the role of the arms industry. And as London prepares to host the world’s largest arms fair, Defence and Security Equipment International, health professionals must do more to resist the arms industry’s influence on government agendas and its damaging effects on human and planetary health.

Looking critically across this landscape, the BMJ has produced a new series examining the role of the arms trade in health and calling for more scrutiny of its health-harming activities and its unhealthy relationship with governments.

In the series, two VISION researchers, Professor Mark Bellis of Liverpool John Moores University and Professor Gene Feder from University of Bristol, with colleagues, lay out the direct and wider harms of arms and show how weapons manufacturers use commercial strategies to subvert public health agendas and shape discourse around security and violence.

They argue that, like the tobacco, alcohol, and fossil fuel industries, the arms industry should be seen as a commercial determinant of health, where corporate practices matter as much as products when considering how industries can harm health.

These practices include marketing, lobbying, funding of think tanks and universities, and forging close relationships with governments, which the industry uses to shape public policy and regulatory environments in its favour while deflecting responsibility for its contribution to perpetuating conflict, injuries, and death.

Mark, Gene and colleagues’ analyses suggest that examining these industry dynamics can help uncover both direct and systemic health harms and inform how health considerations should feature alongside defence and profit.

They acknowledge that this is a conceptual shift but say “it is also a call to action for health professionals including researchers, policy makers, and civil society to advocate for a reorientation away from design, distribution, and deployment for profit and towards global priorities of health, human rights, and peace.”

To access the entire BMJ Series : Arms industry as a commercial determinant of health | The BMJ

To access the analyses by Mark, Gene and their colleagues:

• Weapons, wealth and health: the arms industry as a commercial determinant of health
• Weapons of influence: tactics of a growing global arms industry and needed health actions

For further information, please contact Mark at m.a.bellis@ljmu.ac.uk

Illustration from University of Bristol