By Steve Bell
Monstrous Anger of the Guns: How the Global Arms Trade is ruining the world & what we can do about it has been produced by the Peace & Justice Project. PJP founder and current joint President of Liberation Jeremy Corbyn MP, provides a preface to a collection of essays covering the global arms trade, its impact and campaigns against it.
There are a number of studies of countries and regions – with excellent material on Palestine, Yemen, East Africa, India, Latin America and Hawaii. Alongside these are a number of contributions concerning different aspects of activism – covering the mass character of the anti-war movement, direct action, workers’ initiatives, student campaigns and litigation. A particularly valuable essay from Stuart Parkinson examines militarism and the climate emergency. Important analytical overviews are provided by Anna Stavrianakis and Vijay Prashad. This material is both a serious reference and an inspiration.
This is a publication aimed at activists, or those wishing to become active on issues or war and peace. It is then legitimate to query assumptions in the book. So, it is notable that there are three contributions on Palestine yet no contribution from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC). The PSC has been pivotal to leading the mass solidarity movement against the war on Gaza, one of whose main slogans has been for an arms embargo on Israel. This is a surprising omission.
Equally, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) data is generally taken as authoritative. Only Vijay Prashad’s contribution references an alternative, more accurate account of US arms spending.(1) But the underestimation by SIPRI of US spending is not a unique incident. According to SIPRI data, Iran was the 15th largest arms spender in 2021, at $24.4 billion, spending more than Israel. Yet this is a mistake which SIPRI has been making for two decades according to the research of Esfandyar Batmanghelidj. He has found that SIPRI has used the wrong exchange rate for Iran, and failed to take into account inflation. The real spending of Iran for 2021 was $4.5 billion, placing it outside the top 40 spenders.(2) Sanctions have left Iran with the most outmoded airforce in West Asia, with the exceptions of Yemen, and Syria after the US/Israeli destruction of its armed forces.
The main disappointment with the book is the absence of any coherent analysis of the Ukrainian war. There isn’t a chapter on the issue, despite it being the most obvious expression of the “Monstrous anger” in Europe today. What references there are frequently follow in part the narrative of NATO powers.
Thus, there are numerous references to the “Russian invasion”. But there is not a single reference to the US led Maidan coup against the elected President in 2014, nor a single reference to the subsequent war by the Ukrainian government against Eastern Ukraine that cost 14,000 lives before the Russian military operation. Indeed, there is not a single reference to the Russian minority which made up 30% of Ukraine’s population. That omission is entirely in line with NATO’s determination to obscure any legitimate concerns of the Russian government in Ukraine.
Occasionally the issue of NATO’s eastern expansion and the lethal threat to Russia is referenced. But the existential threat to the Russian state is usually downplayed. On page 10 we read: “The goading of Russia with the continued eastern expansion of NATO despite assurances to the contrary – although in no way justifying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – has certainly contributed to the tension in the region.” NATO’s aim to integrate Ukraine, station nuclear weapons a few minutes flight time from Moscow, arming and sustaining the war is creating “tension”. As though NATO’s actions have created a diplomatic spat!
Or take this: “In February 2022, Russian forces attempted to occupy much of Ukraine, the start of a sudden expansion of war in eastern Europe. NATO responded with immediate assistance for Ukraine…” (p.215). The Russian government acted without cause or provocation and NATO responded – this is a simple reiteration of NATO’s narrative. And, further: “Russia failed in its initial attempts to bring down the Ukrainian government, even after extensive destruction of Ukrainian cities.” (p.215). No reference to the conditions under which Russia moved – i.e. the imminent threat of Ukrainian government invasion of the Donbas, as documented by independent international monitors. No reference to the imperilled position of the Russian speaking minority – the main motivation for the Russian action.
The clearest analysis, unfortunately too brief, can by found in the chapter of Vijay Prashad. He highlights that NATO’s eastern march led “inexorably to the war in Ukraine”; and that it is not “merely about Ukraine or Russia, but about preventing Eurasian integration”. But these insights are neither matched nor developed in any other contribution.
NATO has made a huge financial contribution to sustaining the Ukrainian government in the war. According to the Financial Times on 19th February 2025, the Ukrainian government has spent $320 billion on its war efforts with $200 billion coming from international military assistance. Alongside this there has been the must sustained imperialist mobilisation of ideological resources, through both civil society and state apparatus, possibly since the Second World War.
This combined military and ideological offensive created an atmosphere inside the Global North which has been profoundly difficult for the anti-war movement. Stating that the war was an inevitable product of NATO’s expansion was presented as “support for Putin”. In Britain, for the first time ever, opposing NATO’s actions became grounds for expulsion from the Parliamentary Labour Party, and was defined by Starmer as “incompatible” with membership of the Party. As a result, the anti-war movement in Britain was immediately isolated. In fact, probably more isolated than at any time since the earlier years of the first Cold War.
The situation began to change when the “Spring Offensive” of NATO and the Ukrainian government failed in 2023. By late 2024, significant sectors of the bourgeoisie in the US and Europe began signalling the need to end the war, while trying to avoid embarrassing the position of those who created the war. Trump’s election, on a platform of ending the war, opens up the chance for the anti-war movement to regain momentum.
Trump’s aims to shift US foreign policy by trying to separate Russia from China. He is following the Kissinger playbook. Kissinger and President Nixon used the Sino-Soviet split to make peace with China and then concentrate on bringing down the USSR. Trump’s reversed the target, for China is now regarded as US imperialism’s most dangerous state.
This shift is fuelled by the fact that NATO has suffered the greatest defeat in its history at the hands of Russia. The US government, which directs NATO, has recognised that Ukraine will not be joining NATO; and that the Russian state will continue to be the guarantor of the national minority. These are failures for US war aims, and successes for the Russian state. Whatever the precise delimination of the final peace deal, these essential outlines are clear.
There may be considerable time in negotiations before the final agreement is reached. During this time the anti-war movement must raise its activity. Certainly, this involves opposing all EU and British attempts to interfere with a peace process. But equally the war’s failure, and NATO’s defeat must be used as a platform to oppose the massive increase in arms spending in Europe and Britain being demanded by Trump.
On the latter point, the book has much to offer. On the former not so much. But a new debate will open up in the anti-war movement. Certainly this book belongs on every militant’s shelf.
(2) “SIPRI Has Overstated Iran’s Military Spending For Years”, Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, Bourse and Bazaar, May 5th 2022
Monstrous Anger of the Guns : How the Global Arms Trade is ruining the world & what we can do about it, edited by Rhona Michie, Andrew Feinstein & Paul Rogers
Steve Bell is a member of Liberation and Treasurer of Stop the War Coalition
The above article was originally published here by Liberation.