The phrase "authoritarian arm" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a faction or entity that enforces strict obedience to authority, often in a repressive manner.
Example: "The government's authoritarian arm has been cracking down on dissent and limiting freedom of speech."
Alternatives: "repressive force" or "oppressive branch".
More troubling was the assertion that intervention was necessary to prevent Islamist terrorists and an authoritarian regime armed with weapons of mass destruction making common cause to attack the west.
Trip attendees also held meetings with some controversial and authoritarian regimes, arms dealers and fossil fuel concerns.
Authoritarian populists, usually armed with an insecure and bullying streak of nationalist assertiveness, belong to a model we thought we had discarded at least 25 years ago.
The preferred American MO was to align with authoritarian regimes, offering arms, security guarantees, and other blandishments in return for promises of behavior consistent with Washington's preferences.
It would also show that our commitment is to foster economic freedom rather than to arm an authoritarian government with repressive firepower.
Cameron may avoid the question but the fundamental contradiction between promoting human rights and exporting arms to authoritarian regimes seems to have been finally and openly acknowledged by Britain's Foreign Office.
"The Government needs to acknowledge that there's an inherent conflict between strongly promoting arms exports to authoritarian regimes whilst strongly criticising their lack of human rights at the same time.
As I demonstrate in my book, other countries as diverse as Portugal, Mali, Colombia, Burkina Faso, Britain, Guinea-Bissau, Guatemala, Peru and the United States have all undergone democratization after their military forces turned their arms against their authoritarian governments.
Other non-direct actions, such as writing to MPs, had failed to block arms sales to authoritarian regimes, the defence claimed, with support from expert witnesses from Corruption Watch UK, the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (Bird), and Amnesty International.
It is totally inconsistent for the government to be talking about human rights and democracy at the same time as it is actively promoting arms sales to authoritarian regimes like Saudi Arabia".
