Defining Security Implications of U.S. Reciprocal Defense Procurement (RDP) Agreements: The Case of Europe, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific Region

Abstract

Since 1963, the U.S. has been signing Reciprocal Defense Procurement (RDP) agreements with key partner states. Despite being nicknamed the free trade agreement of the defense industry, however, the profitability of such RDP agreements has been questioned in multiple U.S. government reports. This paper thus focuses on answering the question of why the U.S. continued its efforts to conclude and maintain RDP agreements despite the lack of apparent economic benefits by arguing that there have been significant security considerations over economic interests. By analyzing two types of RDP agreements based on case studies of European and the Middle Eastern signatories, and applying them to the Indo-Pacific region, this study offers an explanation of how U.S. strategies behind the RDP agreements took different forms in accordance with different security objectives and how these can be applied to the potential signatory states in the Indo-Pacific region.