The term Arms race, in its original usage, describes a competition between two or more parties for military supremacy. Each party competes to produce larger numbers of weapons, greater armies, or superior military technology in a technological escalation. A weapon is a Tool used either in Hunting, or attack or defence in Combat for the purpose of subduing enemy personnel or to destroy enemy weapons This article lists military technology items devices and methods Technological escalation describes the fact that whenever two parties are in competition each side tends to employ continuing technological improvements to defeat the other
Examples of Arms Races
- The period preceding World War I, when Germany, Britain, France and Italy were competing to build the most powerful battleship. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All A battleship is a large heavily armored Warship with a main battery consisting of the largest Calibre of Guns Battleships were Lewis Fry Richardson made an arms race model, trying to retrodict World War I, where he showed how two countries would go to war if more money was spent in the arms race than in trade. Retrodiction (or postdiction, though this should not be confused with the use of the term in criticisms of parapsychological research) is the act of making a World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All
- At the geopolitical level of the 20th century, the United States and the Soviet Union developed more and better nuclear weapons during the Cold War (see: nuclear arms race). Geopolitics is the study that analyzes Geography, History and Social science with reference to Spatial politics and patterns at various scales The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the The nuclear Arms race was a competition for supremacy in Nuclear warfare between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective Immediately after World War II, the United States was behind the Soviet Union in the area of intermediate range missiles, but they managed to catch up with the help of German scientists. The Soviet Union committed their command economy to the arms race and, with the deployment of the SS-18 in the late 1970s, achieved first strike parity. A planned economy or directed economy is an Economic system in which the Government or Workers' councils manages the Economy. The R-36 (Р-36 is a family of Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs and Space launch vehicles designed by the Soviet Union during the Cold In Nuclear strategy, a first strike is a preemptive surprise attack employing overwhelming force However, the strain of competition against the great spending power of the United States created enormous economic problems during Mikhail Gorbachev's attempt at konversiya, the transition to a consumer based, mixed economy, and hastened the collapse of the Soviet Union. Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev ( Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachyov;; born 2 March 1931 in Privolnoye Stavropol Krai) is a Russian politician A mixed economy is an Economic system that incorporates aspects of more than one economic system Because the two powers were competing with one another instead of aiming for a predefined goal, both nations soon acquired a huge capacity for overkill. Overkill is the use of Excessive force or action that goes further than is necessary to achieve its goal
Other uses
More generically, the term "arms race" is used to describe any competition where there is no absolute goal, only the relative goal of staying ahead of the other competitors. An evolutionary arms race is a system where two populations are evolving in order to continuously one-up members of the other population. In Evolutionary biology, an evolutionary arms race is an Evolutionary struggle between competing sets of co-evolving Genes that develop adaptations eVolution is the third Album by eLDee, it was due to be released in 2008 For example, a predator / prey arms-race involves predators evolving more effective means to catch prey while their prey evolves more effective means of evasion. This is related to the Red Queen effect, where two populations are co-evolving to overcome one another but are failing to make absolute progress. The Red Queen's Hypothesis, Red Queen, " Red Queen's race " or " Red Queen Effect " is an Evolutionary Hypothesis
In technology, there are close analogues to the arms races between parasites and hosts, such as the arms race between computer virus writers and antivirus software writers, or spammers against Internet service providers and E-mail software writers. A computer virus is a Computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without permission or knowledge of the user Spamming is the abuse of electronic messaging systems to indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages An Internet service provider ( ISP, also called Internet access provider or IAP) is a company which primarily offers their customers access to the Internet Electronic mail, often abbreviated to e-mail, email, or originally eMail, is a Store-and-forward method of writing sending receiving
See also
Literature
- Richard J. Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the The Missile Technology Control Regime ( MTCR) drafted by Dr Richard H The Space Race was a competition of space exploration between the Soviet Union and the United States, which lasted roughly from 1957 to 1975 Barnet: Der amerikanische Rüstungswahn. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1984, ISBN 3-499-11450-X (German)
- Jürgen Bruhn: Der Kalte Krieg oder: Die Totrüstung der Sowjetunion. Focus, Gießen 1995, ISBN 3-88349-434-8 (German)
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