International Weapons dealers have fueled many wars for freedom and contributed to many acts of genocide. The question gets to be what should be done about private merchants and countries that sell weapons abroad to people intent on mass destruction.

 

The Problem: The weapon trade problem is multi fold according to the U.S. small arms are easily manufactured and inexpensive to buy. The United States and the U.N. can cannot justify a reason to outlaw the sale and transportation of small arms to civilians or soverign nations building a defense force. Problems arise when terrorist groups, or govements bent on destruction legally or illegally obtain weapons. The powers that be including the U.N. and U.S. openly support some para military groups attempting to change a soverign nation. Other groups pose a threat to the interest of the U.N, or the U.S. then it is a debate over which groups are legitimate causes to be allowed to purchase or recieve weapons and which ones should not. Countries or para military groups have arms embargos placed on them by the U.N.  

 

Small arms trade while the most prolific is likely the lesser of two evils. The bigger problem and the one that has the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI on high alert is the smuggleing and trade of W.M.D's Meanwhile the ATFE concentrates on regulating small arms deals and smuggleing along with the United States Coast Gaurd.

 

Since the fall of the Soveit Union weapons have been able to move with almost certain impunity from former soviet weaposn cashed to conflicts all over the world with teh help from gun runners and the Russian goverment unofficially. Officially the Russian goverment supplies billions of dollars in weapons to countries all over the world. The Russian Mafia has also been able to capitalize on the Arms Trade around the world and with the money collected been very effective at inluencing Russian govermantal positions. 

While nations all over the world have pledge to combat this problem the countires on the U.N. security council U.S., Russia, China, Great Britain and Canada all are among the largest exporters of weapons.

Supplier	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2000-2006
USA	7417	5743	5011	5601	6654	7083	7929	45438
Russia	4138	5742	5655	5442	6485	6449	6623	40534
Germany (FRG)	1621	825	899	1881	1001	1533	3850	11610
France	1027	1199	1312	1282	2687	2050	1557	11114
UK	1356	1116	742	680	1083	912	1063	6952
Netherlands	259	184	243	343	271	877	1481	3658
Sweden	306	849	127	468	306	587	472	3115
Italy	192	224	407	321	216	787	860	3007
China	228	498	544	553	271	223	564	2881
Ukraine	280	649	210	456	427	308	133	2463
Israel	321	298	365	309	533	244	258	2328
Canada	83	129	182	279	305	193	227	1398
Spain	46	7	120	158	73	116	803	1323
Switzerland	104	120	109	139	201	166	144	983
Belarus	261	299	54	80	50	24		768
Uzbekistan			73	340	170	4		587
Poland	43	70	36	70	65	103	169	556
South Korea	8	165		114	20	39	89	435
Belgium	22	36	34	15	47	185	50	389
Czech Republic	78	89	58	64	1	40	56	386

Table indicates millions of dollars sold in weapons.

 

 

Solutuions: The U.S. government wants to deal, in a practical and effective way with the problem of international small arms and light weapons trafficking in regions of conflict,while continuing to recognize the “legitimacy of legal trade, manufacturing, and ownership of arms.” 

“Ultimately, simple “one size fits all” solutions are ineffective in dealing with the complex, often region-specific problems caused by the proliferation of small arms and light weapons. Focused efforts to identify and curb the sources and methods of the illicit trade via robust export controls, law enforcement measures, and efforts to expeditiously destroy excess stocks and safeguard legitimate government stocks from theft or illegal transfer are the best ways to attack the problem"-

International Small Arms and Light Weapons Transfers: U.S. Policy

 

While the simple solution would be to stop fighting altogether it does not seem a likely scenario and the best answer appears to be arm those who would be oppresed by authoritarain powers.

 

 

Other Links of interest:

Laws and Regulations concerning the sale and trade of weapons to foreign nations

Amnesty International's view on the arms trade

Center for Defense Information- interesting view on teh arms trade as well as press realises concerning the arms trade

 

---

 

just a note The movie "Lord of War" is in my opinion a decent look at the international weapons trade

---

 

PovertyLocal, PovertyAbroad, GlobalClimateChange, TheWarOnTerrorism, TheWarOnDrugs, FreshWaterConservation, ResourceUsage, DiamondTrade