Corruption in the global arms trade is endemic and often hidden in plain sight, entrenched in procurement processes, obscured by national security exemptions, and sustained by opaque networks of private and state actors operating with minimal oversight. The scale and scope of corruption in arms trade deals is evident in the Corruption Tracker (CT) database of 59 separate cases documented by the CT research team. The cases cover 63 countries and 81 companies over the span of 45 years, and implicate industry and government actors, from purchasing and selling countries. While high-profile scandals or individual cases may occasionally capture media attention, the broader systemic patterns and their far-reaching implications remain insufficiently examined. This report seeks to fill that gap by analyzing emerging trends in arms trade corruption from across the cases in the CT database.
