something that isn't as common knowledge as I thought:
The US arms industry is specifically designed as a system of control and entanglement, a working example of the liberal idea that countries will not go to war with their trade partners. NATO standard is is a market system.
Arms deals or military aid from the US (or other NATO nations) is provided in amounts and costs that make it more practical to import, or, alternately, consist of parts you are obligated not to reverse-engineer (too obviously or too quickly) or manufacture.
This isn't a mercantilist system; countries are free to design and manufacture and sell their own weapons into this market. The US even encourages this. The horizontal links makes countries more entangled with NATO, more capable of arming each other, and more dependent on each other.
This entire system aggrandizes the US of course. Not only in having a readymade market for their arms, but also because the US - or other NATO nations - can veto your war by halting shipments of something you don't produce yourself because it's expensive, impractical, or non-competitive.
This is a powerful economic weapon that specifically empowers the US President to tell the US's allies to stop or else get cut off.
If the US State Department says you're committing war crimes, you (kinda) get cut off. If DOD doesn't approve your arms shipments, they don't go anywhere.
The president has a great deal of leeway on this. He's the chief diplomat and commander-in-chief. The people making all of the decisions serve at his pleasure. If there is something fucked about US arms shipments and it's not "there isn't enough money," the president is empowered to unfuck things.
Israel is EXTREMELY exposed to this. While they are a net arms exporter, they are reliant on US shipments of basic munitions. Bombs and shells and missiles. Not necessarily high-tech stuff; the US makes bombs and Israel makes the JDAM semi-guidance kits to bolt onto them.
