The phrase arms race, in its original usage, is a competition between two or more parties to have the best armed forces. Each party competes to produce larger numbers of weapons, greater armies, or superior military technology in a technological escalation. Nowadays the term is mostly used to describe any competition where there is no absolute goal, only the relative goal of staying ahead of the other competitors, essentially the goal of proving to be "better".
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Famous quotes containing the words arms and/or race:
“The use of arms is ownership
Of the appropriate gun. It is ownership that brings
Victory that is not hinted at in “Das Kapital.”
I think there is never but one true war
So let us as you desire perfect our trade.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“Seeing their children touched and seared and wounded by race prejudice is one of the heaviest crosses which colored women have to bear.”
—Mary Church Terrell (1863–1954)