Domestic Constituencies, Institutional Interests and the Persistence of Arms Races Introduction Explaining why states continue to prize high defence expenditures — and why international arms-control agreements often stumble or unravel — requires moving beyond unitary-state, system-level accounts of the security dilemma to a richer political-economy analysis. Defence budgets are not only instruments of external security; … Continue reading In what ways do domestic political constituencies—such as military–industrial complexes, strategic bureaucracies, nationalist political coalitions, and security-oriented epistemic communities—shape and sustain state preferences for heightened defence expenditures, and how do their institutional interests cumulatively contribute to the perpetuation of international arms races despite formal arms-control initiatives? Provide a critical evaluation drawing on theoretical and empirical insights from international political economy and strategic studies.