Arms race - wikipedia Arms race This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( June 2007 ) An arms race, in its original usage, is a competition between two or more parties / groups to have the best armed forces. Each party competes to produce larger numbers of weapons, greater armies, superior military technology, etc. in a technological escalation. International conflict specialist Theresa Clair Smith, defines the term as `` the participation of two or more nation - states in apparently competitive or interactive increases in quantity or quality of war material and / or persons under arms. '' The term is also used to describe a competitive situation, in which the purpose is only to be more successful than one 's competitors. Contents 1 Examples 1.1 Pre-First World War naval arms race 1.2 Nuclear arms race 2 Other uses 3 See also 4 References 5 Literature Examples Pre-first world war naval arms race Main articles : Anglo - German naval arms race, World War I naval arms race ( disambiguation ), and South American dreadnought race The size and power of battleships grew rapidly before, during, and after World War I : a result of competitive shipbuilding among a number of naval powers, brought to an end by the Washington Naval Treaty From 1891 to 1914, a naval arms race between the United Kingdom and Germany took place. British concern about rapid increase in German naval power resulted in a costly building competition of Dreadnought - class ships. This tense arms race lasted until 1914, when the war broke out. After the war, a new arms race developed among the victorious Allies, which was temporarily ended by the Washington Naval Treaty. In addition to the British and Germans, contemporaneous but smaller naval arms races also broke out between Russia and the Ottoman Empire ; the Ottomans and Greece ; France and Italy ; the United States and Japan ; and Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. Nuclear arms race Main article : Nuclear arms race A nuclear arms race developed during the Cold War, an intense period between the Soviet Union and the United States and some other countries. This was one of the main causes that began the cold war. On both sides, perceived advantages of the adversary ( such as the `` missile gap '' ) led to large spending on armaments and the stockpiling of vast nuclear arsenals. Proxy wars were fought all over the world ( e.g. in the Middle East, Korea, Vietnam ) in which the superpowers ' conventional weapons were pitted against each other. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, tensions decreased and the nuclear arsenal of both countries were reduced. Other uses More generically, the term `` arms race '' is used to describe any competition where there is no absolute goal, only the relative goal of staying ahead of the other competitors in rank or knowledge. An arms race may also imply futility as the competitors spend a great deal of time and money, yet end up in the same situation as if they had never started the arms race. An evolutionary arms race is a system where two populations are evolving in order to continuously one - up members of the other population. This is related to the Red Queen effect ( # Arms race ), where two organisms co-evolve to overcome each other but each fails to progress relative to the other interactant. In technology, there are close analogues to the arms races between parasites and hosts, such as the arms race between computer virus writers and antivirus software writers, or spammers against Internet service providers and E-mail software writers. See also Arms industry Arms Control Revolution in Military Affairs One - upmanship Missile gap Security dilemma Space Race Lewis Fry Richardson for his mathematical analysis of war Cyber arms race Weaponization of artificial intelligence References Jump up ^ Smith, Theresa Clair ( 1980 ). `` Arms Race Instability and War '' ( PDF ). Journal of Conflict Resolution. 24 ( 2 ) : 253 -- 284. doi : 10.1177 / 002200278002400204. Literature Barnet, Richard J. 1984. Der amerikanische Rüstungswahn. Reinbek : Rowohlt ISBN 3 - 499 - 11450 - X ( in German ) Bruhn, Jürgen. 1995. Der Kalte Krieg oder : Die Totrüstung der Sowjetunion. Gießen : Focus ISBN 3 - 88349 - 434 - 8 ( in German ) Mitchell, David F., and Jeffrey Pickering. 2017. `` Arms Buildups and the Use of Military Force. '' In Cameron Thies, ed., Oxford Encyclopedia of Foreign Policy Analysis. Oxford : Oxford University Press. DOI : 10.1093 / acrefore / 9780190228637.013. 390 Cold War USA USSR ANZUS NATO Non-Aligned Movement SEATO Warsaw Pact 1940s Hukbalahap Rebellion Dekemvriana Yalta Conference Guerrilla war in the Baltic states Forest Brothers Operation Priboi Operation Jungle Occupation of the Baltic states Cursed soldiers Operation Unthinkable Potsdam Conference Gouzenko Affair Operation Masterdom Operation Beleaguer Operation Blacklist Forty Iran crisis of 1946 Greek Civil War Corfu Channel incident Turkish Straits crisis Restatement of Policy on Germany First Indochina War Truman Doctrine Asian Relations Conference Marshall Plan 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état Tito -- Stalin Split Berlin Blockade Western betrayal Iron Curtain Eastern Bloc Western Bloc Chinese Civil War ( Second round ) Malayan Emergency Albanian Subversion 1950s Bamboo Curtain Korean War 1953 Iranian coup d'état Uprising of 1953 in East Germany Dirty War ( Mexico ) 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état Partition of Vietnam First Taiwan Strait Crisis Geneva Summit ( 1955 ) Poznań 1956 protests Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Suez Crisis Syrian Crisis of 1957 Sputnik crisis Second Taiwan Strait Crisis Cuban Revolution Kitchen Debate Bandung Conference Bricker Amendment McCarthyism Operation Gladio Iraqi 14 July Revolution `` We will bury you '' 1960s Congo Crisis Sino - Soviet split 1960 U-2 incident Bay of Pigs Invasion 1960 Turkish coup d'état Soviet -- Albanian split Berlin Wall Portuguese Colonial War Angolan War of Independence Guinea - Bissau War of Independence Mozambican War of Independence Cuban Missile Crisis Sino - Indian War Communist insurgency in Sarawak Iraqi Ramadan Revolution 1963 Syrian coup d'état Vietnam War 1964 Brazilian coup d'état United States occupation of the Dominican Republic ( 1965 -- 66 ) South African Border War Transition to the New Order Domino theory ASEAN Declaration Laotian Civil War 1966 Syrian coup d'état Argentine Revolution Korean DMZ Conflict Greek military junta of 1967 -- 74 USS Pueblo incident Six - Day War War of Attrition Dhofar Rebellion Protests of 1968 French May Cultural Revolution Prague Spring Communist insurgency in Malaysia Invasion of Czechoslovakia Iraqi Ba'athist Revolution Goulash Communism Sino - Soviet border conflict CPP -- NPA -- NDF rebellion Corrective Move 1970s Détente Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Black September in Jordan Corrective Movement ( Syria ) Cambodian Civil War Realpolitik Ping - pong diplomacy 1971 Turkish military memorandum Corrective Revolution ( Egypt ) Four Power Agreement on Berlin Bangladesh Liberation War 1972 Nixon visit to China North Yemen - South Yemen Border Conflict 1973 Chilean coup d'état Yom Kippur War Carnation Revolution Strategic Arms Limitation Talks Rhodesian Bush War Angolan Civil War Mozambican Civil War Ogaden War Ethiopian Civil War Lebanese Civil War Sino - Albanian split Cambodian -- Vietnamese War Sino - Vietnamese War Iranian Revolution Operation Condor Dirty War Korean Air Lines Flight 902 Saur Revolution New Jewel Movement 1979 Herat uprising Seven Days to the River Rhine Struggle against political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union 1980s Soviet -- Afghan War 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics boycotts 1980 Turkish coup d'état Invasion of Grenada 1986 Black Sea incident 1988 Black Sea bumping incident Solidarity Soviet reaction Contras Central American crisis RYAN Korean Air Lines Flight 007 Able Archer 83 Star Wars People Power Revolution Glasnost Perestroika Nagorno - Karabakh War Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 Revolutions of 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall 1990s Mongolian Revolution of 1990 German reunification Yemeni unification Fall of communism in Albania Breakup of Yugoslavia Dissolution of the Soviet Union Dissolution of Czechoslovakia Frozen conflicts Abkhazia China Korea Nagorno - Karabakh South Ossetia Transnistria Sino - Indian border dispute North Borneo dispute Foreign policy Truman Doctrine Containment Eisenhower Doctrine Domino theory Hallstein Doctrine Kennedy Doctrine Peaceful coexistence Ostpolitik Johnson Doctrine Brezhnev Doctrine Nixon Doctrine Ulbricht Doctrine Carter Doctrine Reagan Doctrine Rollback Sovereignty of Puerto Rico during the Cold War Ideologies Capitalism Chicago school Keynesianism Monetarism Neoclassical economics Reaganomics Supply - side economics Thatcherism Communism Marxism -- Leninism Castroism Eurocommunism Guevarism Hoxhaism Juche Maoism Naxalism Stalinism Titoism Other Islamism Liberal democracy Social democracy Third - Worldism White supremacy Organizations ASEAN CIA Comecon EEC KGB MI6 Non-Aligned Movement SAARC Safari Club Stasi Propaganda Active measures Crusade for Freedom Izvestia Pravda Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty Red Scare TASS Voice of America Voice of Russia Races Arms race Nuclear arms race Space Race See also Soviet espionage in the United States Soviet Union -- United States relations Soviet -- US summits Russian espionage in the United States American espionage in the Soviet Union and Russian Federation NATO -- Russia relations Brinkmanship CIA and the Cultural Cold War Cold War II Commons Portal Timeline List of conflicts Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arms_race&oldid=793442587 '' Categories : Military terminology Geopolitical rivalry Technological races Weapons Hidden categories : Articles needing additional references from June 2007 All articles needing additional references Articles with German - language external links Talk Contents About Wikipedia Afrikaans Azərbaycanca Беларуская Català Čeština Cymraeg Deutsch Español Esperanto فارسی Français Gaeilge 한국어 Հայերեն Íslenska Italiano עברית Қазақша Latina Lietuvių Magyar Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Polski Português Română Русский Српски / srpski Suomi Svenska Türkçe Українська 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 1 August 2017, at 19 : 39. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: what was the arms race in world war 1
Answer: naval