Arms On The Market

Escape with a disaffected young sculptor from a desert dystopia to “heaven,” a blue ocean realm ruled by a perverse, tentacled god with a mysterious purpose. Your trust may be outraged, but dive deeper and you’ll uncover clues to the creative sea change in our ideals that could redeem a desolate world.

This volume is about the guns that fuel the huge toll of deaths in the world's most bloody conflicts at the turn of the century. Whether it is Africa, Sri Lanka or even Chechnya and Afghanistan, it is not heavy weaponry or hi-tech devices that kill the most people, but the flood of cheap, easy to get, small arms that has swept over so many countries in the 80s and 90s. Crime rates involving guns within countries have also soared, as South Africa and Kenya, for example, have experienced. Yet a lot of this cross-border arms trade is illegal. So much so that several governments, including the United States, Canada and Mexico, are now pressing for rapid negotiation of a new global treaty on illegal trafficking in small arms.

The Small Arms Survey 2007 features a special focus on the complex issue of urban violence.

With the post-cold war emphasis on the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the neglected dimension has been the spread of advanced conventional arms. Yet these are the arms most likely to be used in conflict. They present the greatest diversion from economic and social development, and are the centerpiece of regional security balances. This book examines the policies and practices of the major arms-supplying nations, looks at the impact of weapons purchases on the principal recipient regions and the possibilities for regional arms control, and dissects the economics of arms exports for the producer nations in both the developing and industrialized worlds. The book thoroughly discusses the opportunities for, and obstacles to, achieving multilateral restraint on arms. In addition to the editor, contributors are Ian Anthony, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute; Nicole Ball, Overseas Development Council; Julian Cooper, University of Birmingham; Lawrence Freedman and Martin Navias, King's College, London; Rodney Jones, Policy Architects International; Ethan Kapstein, University of Minnesota; Michael Klare, Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies; Andrew Mack, Australian National University; Abdel Monem Said Aly, Center for Political and Strategic Studies, Cairo; Janne Nolan, Brookings Institution; Andrew Ross, Naval War College; Gerald Segal, International Institute for Strategic Studies; and Gerald Steinberg, Bar-Ilan University, Israel. Copublished with the World Peace Foundation

Marco Wyss examines the extensive Anglo-Swiss armaments relationship between 1945 and 1958 in light of their bilateral relations, and thereby assesses the role of arms transfers, neutrality and Britain, as well as the two countries' relationship during the Cold War.

Profound changes are occurring in the structure of arms production in Western Europe. Concentration is increasing at a fast pace. Small producers are disappearing and even large ones are opting out of the market. The various national arms industries, long operating in protective environments, are rapidly internationalizing. Three factors combine to bring about this change: East-West detente, the creation of the Single European Market, and the constant pressure of increasingly complex technology. In this book experts describe how the framework for producing arms in Western Europe is altered, and how various actors--firms, governments, and trade unions--are adapting to the new situation. The book presents detailed analyses of all the arms-producing countries in Western Europe. In addition to describing recent changes, the authors speculate on the implications of these for the balance of power in Western Europe, the relations between Western Europe and the United States, arms exports to the Third World, and problems of converting from military to civilian production. The appendices include the SIPRI list of the 50 largest arms-producing companies in Western Europe; data on mergers and acquisitions, procurement expenditure, and exports of major weapons; selections from treaties and other official documents relevant to current and future regulation of West European arms production; and a select bibliography.