Follow us on social

Shutterstock_2041380377-e1655288934143

New Biden arms sale policy puts human rights abusers on notice

The White House issued its strictest transfer policy in decades, but experts are waiting to see results.

Reporting | Military Industrial Complex

The White House announced Thursday that it will employ a new, far stricter standard for approving weapons sales to countries with a record of human rights abuses.

The State Department is now instructed to block U.S. arms transfers to any country that will “more likely than not” use them to commit serious human rights violations. Officials previously had to have “actual knowledge” that American weapons would be used to perpetrate such offenses.

The new rule “gives a decision-maker who wants to honor human rights a better capability to do that than the ‘actual knowledge’ standard,” according to Jeff Abramson of the Arms Control Association. U.S. officials have not specified which countries could be affected by the policy.

The change, which Reuters first reported on Wednesday, is part of President Joe Biden’s long-awaited Conventional Arms Transfer (CAT) policy. The document outlines the administration’s general approach to foreign security assistance and includes guidance for the State Department, the Pentagon, and the Commerce Department.

Experts say Biden’s CAT policy represents a significant shift from that of President Donald Trump, which emphasized the economic benefits of U.S. weapons sales while discounting risks of abuse.

“This policy, certainly in rhetoric, advances important human rights security sector goals in ways that are stronger than previous policies,” said Abramson.

Among other changes, the new policy will also consider the “security sector governance” of prospective buyers, according to a State Department official who spoke with reporters Wednesday.

“What we mean there is security institutions [...] that are subject to rule of law, that have effective accountability in the case of abuses,” the official said. “We’ve seen this obviously over the years as an indicator of whether a receiving government will use U.S. arms transfers responsibly.”

Arms control experts and advocates welcomed the changes and called on the Biden administration to strictly enforce its new policy, which will no doubt draw criticism from autocratic allies and defense industry lobbyists alike.

For Bill Hartung of the Quincy Institute, the “key question” is whether this policy’s focus on human rights will be upheld in practice. “The administration’s actual record versus its rhetoric will be the test of whether the new policy is a fresh start or ends up promoting a business-as-usual approach to arms transfers,” he wrote.

Notably, the policy does not address the Arms Trade Treaty, a multilateral agreement that Trump attempted to “unsign” in 2018. The U.S. has not yet ratified the deal, which places a significant emphasis on human rights and international security considerations for potential weapons sales.

And, as Abramson noted, other provisions in the CAT policy could encourage policymakers to sign off on controversial deals. “There is certainly wording in there about the defense industrial base, about winning countries over to the United States, which could lead to direction of more sales rather than less sales,” he said.

The United States has sold weapons to roughly half of the world’s countries, including notorious human rights abusers like Nigeria, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the Philippines, and others. Just last year, the Biden administration approved a controversial sale of helicopters and military other equipment to Egypt despite significant opposition from Congress.

American exports made up fully 39 percent of the international arms trade between 2017 and 2021, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The only other countries whose share of global exports surpassed five percent were Russia (19 percent) and France (11 percent).

But that could be changing. The conflict in Ukraine has led to a massive increase in demand for weapons, which has boosted growing arms industries in countries like South Korea and Israel.

“Demand for arms and a new eagerness on the part of exporters to provide them is likely to contribute to an acceleration in the pace and scale of the global weapons trade,” wrote Elias Yousif of the Stimson Center in a recent piece.

Few data points illustrate this better than IDEX 23, the international weapons expo taking place this week in the UAE. As Washington releases its new CAT policy, Abu Dhabi is hosting weapons firms from around the world, including Russian and Ukrainian companies eager to sell their battle-tested wares. Several participants, including Emirati arms maker EDGE Group, have announced new sales worth billions of dollars, while an American official told Breaking Defense that the UAE may yet get its hands on the F-35.

As the weapons trade enters this boom period, Abramson hopes that the U.S. will strictly enforce the policy, which could serve as a standard for other countries.

“As by far the world’s largest arms provider, U.S. CAT policy will set the tone for others as many countries ramp up weapons production and inevitably look toward sales to sustain that industry,” he wrote in a recent piece. “Whether we see a global free-for-all, or arms transfers guided by restraint and transparency, may hang in the balance.”


President Joe Biden exits Air Force One. (Shutterstock/Chris Allan)
Reporting | Military Industrial Complex
Fort Bragg horrors expose dark underbelly of post-9/11 warfare
Top photo credit: Seth Harp book jacket (Viking press) US special operators/deviant art/creative commons

Fort Bragg horrors expose dark underbelly of post-9/11 warfare

Media

In 2020 and 2021, 109 U.S. soldiers died at Fort Bragg, the largest military base in the country and the central location for the key Special Operations Units in the American military.

Only four of them were on overseas deployments. The others died stateside, mostly of drug overdoses, violence, or suicide. The situation has hardly improved. It was recently revealed that another 51 soldiers died at Fort Bragg in 2023. According to U.S. government data, these represent more military fatalities than have occurred at the hands of enemy forces in any year since 2013.

keep readingShow less
Trump Netanyahu
Top image credit: President Donald Trump hosts a bilateral dinner for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Monday, July 7, 2025, in the Blue Room. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)

The case for US Middle East retrenchment has never been clearer

Middle East

Is Israel becoming the new hegemon of the Middle East? The answer to this question is an important one.

Preventing the rise of a rival regional hegemon — a state with a preponderance of military and economic power — in Eurasia has long been a core goal of U.S. foreign policy. During the Cold War, Washington feared Soviet dominion over Europe. Today, U.S. policymakers worry that China’s increasingly capable military will crowd the United States out of Asia’s lucrative economic markets. The United States has also acted repeatedly to prevent close allies in Europe and Asia from becoming military competitors, using promises of U.S. military protection to keep them weak and dependent.

keep readingShow less
United Nations
Top image credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com

Do we need a treaty on neutrality?

Global Crises

In an era of widespread use of economic sanctions, dual-use technology exports, and hybrid warfare, the boundary between peacetime and wartime has become increasingly blurry. Yet understandings of neutrality remain stuck in the time of trench warfare. An updated conception of neutrality, codified through an international treaty, is necessary for global security.

Neutrality in the 21st century is often whatever a country wants it to be. For some, such as the European neutrals like Switzerland and Ireland, it is compatible with non-U.N. sanctions (such as by the European Union) while for others it is not. Countries in the Global South are also more likely to take a case-by-case approach, such as choosing to not take a stance on a specific conflict and instead call for a peaceful resolution while others believe a moral position does not undermine neutrality.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.