t hich by 1981 doubGd its volrne over the previous five years and remained heaviLy concentrated both on the supply and demand side' More than 90 per cent of the weapons transferred all over the worLd were exported by six developed countrlesr witir two najor rnilitary P6'rers accountlng for ehe largest share' (d) Iarge shares of global arms transfers are going to the regions htith conflict situations "norrg ih" developing countries' Thus, the countr ies in tlre Middle East regi.on accounted' in 1981, for a little less than one third of the total weapons inPorts all over the worlal. They inported nore than the -conbinedtotal value of arns imPorts by all the other develoPing regions, that is' the Far East, south Anerica, North Africa, south Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Central funerica. The same is true for the situation in southern Africa, rdhere south Mrica alone imported nore arns than all the other African states cornbined throughout the 1950s and 1950s. By 1980, south Afrlca had energed as the largest single custoner of arns exported by Israel, accounting for 35 per cent of Israel's arns exports' 31. Aa mentioned earlier ln this chapter, approxlmately one fifth of the 91oba1 nilitary spenaling is estirated to be going into the groeing stockpiles of nuclear weaponJ whlch have long since surpassld the tethality to destroy the world nany tines over. Throughout the 1960s and 19?0s, the technologlcal thrust of the nuclear arms race haat protluced spectacular results in inproving the hemispheric reachrtheyielilrtheaccuracy'the..tto"u*trabilityandthesurvivabllityof ntrclear ,.ufons vtithout any significant reductions in their nunbers' some of the noreeyeratchingasPectsofthisphenonenonweredescrib€dlndetailintheI9TTi.po.t'to ae orr"irutl the extent oi the destruceive potential of the nuclear arms race, besides conveying the nagnitu'te of its purely financial costs and tbe intractability of the tlisarmanent measures alesigned to halt and reverse it'
**Analysis**
The text appears to be discussing the global arms trade, specifically the volume and concentration of weapons exports and imports, as well as the regional distribution of these transactions. The language used is technical and focused on military matters, with references to nuclear weapons and the arms race. This suggests that the text is more closely related to the field of international relations and security rather than economic development or other social sciences.

**Category**
International trade, Industry