New figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute show just how much arms sales have been growing - with a 14 percent rise in the past five years compared with the previous five years.
Countries in Asia and the Middle East are the biggest buyers - India and Saudi Arabia are first and second. Currently at war with forces across the border in Yemen, Saudi arms imports almost trebled compared with the period between 2006 and 2010.
China remains in the top three, though interestingly its share has decreased quite dramatically as Beijing continues to pour money into developing its own arms manufacturing industry.
That's borne out in the list of the world's biggest arms exporters in which China has now overtaken France and Germany, sitting behind the world's top two: the United States and Russia.
So what does it all mean for world security?
Presenter: Mike Hanna
Pieter Wezeman - Senior researcher in the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's Arms and Military Expenditure Programme
Manoj Joshi - Head of the National Security Programme for the Observer Research Foundation
Tomas Baum - Director of the Flemish Peace Institute an independent parliamentary research institute
