[tormeh]

>and sell them to any country in the world

This is never true. No government will allow its companies (and in this context that's how it's seen) to sell weapons to countries they don't approve of. That said, apparently the defense industry is often irresponsible at best.

[thirduncle]

No government will allow its companies (and in this context that's how it's seen) to sell weapons to countries they don't approve of.

What the poster meant was "just about any country" in the world. Which we've seen happen time and time again - the restrictions may be nominally in place (for a while), but eventually they get selectively lifted, and/or the companies find a way to circumvent them.

At times (and not at all surprisingly) with the assistance of certain government agencies chartered with the purpose of not only enacting precisely this kind of subterfuge - but perfecting it as an art.

[jcbrand]

Doesn't really matter that much, AFAIK all (most?) western countries sell to Saudi Arabia for instance.

[Mediterraneo10]

Even if a firm in country A can sell only to group of countries X, another firm in country B might be able to sell to group of countries Y. All you really need is a few companies with overlapping markets to eventually bring such tech to the entire world.

[davesque]

It would be like Pandora's box, no? We didn't want North Korea to get nukes either.