The Small Arms Trade

Small Arms are responsible for over half a million deaths each year. Despite this terrifying statistic, millions of guns flow into the streets of the world each year. It is a multi-billion dollar industry, and one which is barely regulated. From AK-47s to M16 rifles; from Terrorist-owned shoulder-fired missiles to child soldiers, this enlightening guide reveals the disturbing reality behind the murky underworld of international arms trading. Explaining how deals can often operate on the edge of legality, and listing the world’s main players, it goes on to ask how the exchange of small arms can be tightened in the future. Full of insight and anticipating the danger of ever lighter and more powerful weapons, this is required reading for anyone who wishes to understand the world today and one of the key threats to development, prosperity and international peace.

This book deals with the proliferation of SALW and their unregulated trade and transfer across borders.

The multi-billion dollar business of the international conventional arms trade involves virtually every country in the world. Around the globe, people's lives are being irrevocably changed by the effects of guns, tanks, and missiles. These weapons have the potential to cause a deadly and current threat - one responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths a year. This succinct and accessible new book explores the complexities and realities of the global conventional weapons trade. The first book on the subject in nearly a decade, The International Arms Trade provides an engaging introduction to the trade, the effects, and the consequences of these weapons. The authors trace the history of the arms trade and examine how it has evolved since the end of the Cold War. In particular, they assess the role of the largest arms exporters and importers, the business of selling conventional arms around the world, and shed new light on the illicit arms trade and the shadowy dealers who profit from their deadly commerce. The book also looks closely at the devastating effect the business can have on countries, societies, and individuals and concludes with an evaluation of the various existing control strategies and the potential for future control opportunities. The International Arms Trade will be invaluable for students and scholars of international relations and security studies, and for policymakers and anyone interested in understanding more about the conventional arms trade.

First published in 1999, the papers collected in this volume were originally prepared for four workshops organized by the UN Department for Disarmament Affairs to inform the work of the Panel of Governmental Experts on Small Arms. These workshops were held during 1995-96. Some of the authors updated their papers for publication in early 1998. Lora Lumpe, senior fellow with the Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms Transfers in Oslo and Tamar Gabelnick, Acting Director of the Arms Sales Monitoring Project at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, DC edited the presentations for this book.

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.

In examining various aspects of the provision of security, the Small Arms Survey 2011 considers the growth of the private security industry and its firearms holdings worldwide; the firearms holdings of private security personnel; the use of private security companies by multinational corporations; the use of emerging weapons technology among Western police forces; and legislative controls over the civilian possession of firearms in 42 jurisdictions around the world. Case studies provide original research on ongoing security challenges in Côte d'Ivoire, Haiti and Madagascar. This edition also presents the 2011 Small Arms Trade Transparency Barometer, an estimate of the annual authorized trade in light weapons, and a review of developments related to small arms control at the United Nations.

For this study, a group of Russian authors were commissioned to describe and assess the arms trade policies and practices of Russia under new domestic and international conditions. The contributors, drawn from the government, industry, and academic communities, offer a wide range of reports on the political, military, economic, and industrial implications of Russian arms transfers, as well as specific case studies of key bilateral arms transfer relationships.