View Towards Change: The United States-Republic of Korea Arms Trade Relationship Through the Post-Cold War

摘要

In May 1998, Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre ordered an extensive review of the Pentagon's foreign military sales (FMS) process. The impact of this review could result in the dismantling of an empire of bureaucracy that evolved during the Cold War. The review was brought on after complaints from senior officials and an apparent realization that the cumbersome FMS process, a legacy of Cold War-era US security assistance, was driving US allies to other suppliers of military goods and services who are willing to deal more flexibly. There is perhaps no better example that demonstrates the need to develop a more productive course in arms trade relations than that involving the United States and the Republic of Korea (ROK).