Network-based study on the relationship between arms exports and foreign policies

According to the data of arms exports of the top 20 largest arms exports countries in 1993-2012, an arms exports network is constructed to study the relationship of the exporters. Then the topological properties of the network and its minimal spanning tree are calculated to weigh the influence and importance of a country in all exporters, and the time evolution of the properties. It turns out that the properties fluctuate with the time. Consequently, the correlations of the arms exporters are discussed with the recipients during and after the wars. Besides, a time delayed network is constructed. The correlations of the exporters with time lag are discussed by filtering the time delayed network in different ways. The interactions between the exporters are visualized after filtering. This study may shed new light on how arms exports reflect foreign policies.