Emerging Powers And Future Threats: Implications For The U.S. and Global Defense Industry

This Letort Paper evaluates the defense industrial capabilities of six emerging market countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS), and Turkey. These six countries represent the primary non-Western (that is, not the United States or Western and Central European) countries that are active in either importing or exporting weapons or both, and currently have or hold the conditions to develop a vibrant defense industrial base over the next 2 decades. The prominence of these and other countries reflects the economic changes, investment opportunities, and future potential of some of the world's largest countries (in population). Clearly, a different global environment now exists than that of just 30 years ago, before the fall of the Berlin Wall and end of the Cold War. To the extent that economic power translates into political and military power, the United States will be faced with multidimensional challenges from these countries in the years to come.