What is...the Arms Trade?

What is the arms trade, and how does it shape our world? In our first episode of 2026, we explore why scholars of international relations should pay closer attention to the arms trade, and what its dynamics reveal about power, security, and global inequality. Joining us is Professor Anna Stavrianakis (Sussex), leading expert on the international arms trade, UK arms export policy, and militarism in North–South perspective. Anna teaches at the University of Sussex and serves as Director of Research and Strategy at Shadow World Investigations, an organisation that exposes corruption and abuse in the arms industry. She has provided expert evidence to UK parliamentary committees, collaborated with civil society groups such as Campaign Against Arms Trade, Control Arms, and the UK Working Group on Arms, and written extensively on the politics of militarism and the arms trade. In conversation with host Polly Pallister-Wilkins, she tells us how the global arms trade operates, who benefits from it, and how critical scholarship and activism can challenge its political influence.