Ian Davis is Arms and Security Programme Co-ordinator at the London-based independent foreign-policy think-tank, Saferworld.
Running Guns: The Global Black Market in Small Arms
edited by lora lumpe
London, Zed Books, 2000. 256 pages
Hardback: UK £49.95, US $69.95. Paperback: UK £15.95, US $27.50
Over a decade after the end of the Cold War, the proliferation of weapons continues to frustrate attempts to build and maintain peace in many regions of conflict around the world. Some progress has been made to restrain arms transfers, as for example through the agreement of a European “Code of Conduct on Arms Exports”. Yet arms continue to be sold to governments which abuse human rights and to countries in conflict.
That the nature and role of the arms trade have changed significantly is increasingly apparent. Although the trade in major weapon systems continues, it has lost much of its military and strategic importance. Instead, it is the trade in small arms and light weapons that often poses the most immediate threat to human security and international stability. Forty-five of the world’s major conflicts since 1990 have been internal affairs fought with small arms such as machine guns and mortars. There are an estimated five hundred million light weapons in circulation globally (although no one really knows for sure because there is an almost total lack of accurate data on this aspect of the arms market). The easy availability of these arms fuels conflict, prolongs instability in post-conflict regions, undermines development and hinders efforts to reintegrate displaced people and ex-combatants.
The small arms contributing to such instability are often illicitly trafficked into conflict zones. The development of national mechanisms to tighten controls on illicit trafficking is therefore vital. However, the problem is one that stretches across borders and continents and as such can only be comprehensively addressed at the regional and international levels. To this end, the United Nations will convene a “Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects” in July 2001. The conference is now the primary focus for a growing international coalition of states, international organisations and civil society groups seeking to promote effective global action. It is crucial that the 2001 conference is a success.
One of the principal aims of Running Guns: The Global Black Market in Small Arms is to help states and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) prepare for the conference. A compelling and timely contribution to that end, the book is the result of a collaborative process involving the Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms Transfers (NISAT), the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO), and a number of NGO, academic, legal and other experts in the field of small arms. The authors address several key topics relating to the definition and operation of illicit arms trafficking. They also provide a wealth of policy recommendations, which are usefully summarised by the editor, Lora Lumpe, at the end of the book. Indeed, this “Summary of Recommendations for States and Citizens” (pp. 225–32) lays out an important blueprint for government action at the 2001 conference.
The study is divided into four sections. The first seeks to frame the issue. It starts with a lively description by Brian Johnson-Thomas of how ammunition from a manufacturer in the Slovak Republic was diverted to the battlefields of Africa (chapter 1). Johnson-Thomas illustrates a systematic weakness found in national export controls throughout the world, namely, the failure to adopt rigorous end-use controls. There is an urgent need to construct an end-use certification and monitoring system that reduces the risk of diversion or re-export of small arms and other controlled technology to sensitive destinations.
The second chapter, by Emanuela Gillard, provides a detailed review of relevant international law and highlights the many dimensions of what is “illicit” and what is “legal” in relation to small-arms exports. It also provides the book with its philosophical core: the need to broaden popular and governmental understanding of the term “illicit arms supply” to include state responsibility for “legal” arms transfers. This is undoubtedly the right approach (if not yet recognised as such by many governments). While the small-arms problematic is highly complex, one thing is certain: almost all “illicit” small arms begin life as “legal” small arms. The problem is not just AK-47s and post-conflict weapons. Indeed, in many contexts, separating “conflict” and “crime” is to make a rather artificial distinction. Illicit small arms are diverted through many channels from many different sources. Civilians possess as many or more small arms than states, which is not the case with nuclear weapons or landmines. Consequently, despite the political sensitivity in some quarters, “illicit trafficking in all its aspects” cannot be discussed, much less solutions developed, unless issues of legal control, including domestic regulation of civilian firearms, are also addressed.
This reality is reflected in the second section of the book, which considers specific types of supply-source. While not claiming to be exhaustive, the three chapters identify three broad themes: governments as the source of covert arms (chapter 3); the impact of globalisation of production, including the licensing of production, on illicit arms transfers (chapter 4); and the link between domestic gun markets and international arms trafficking (chapter 5). In this last chapter, Wendy Cukier and Steve Shropshire show the many ways in which illegal arms markets are fed by lax regulation of domestic firearms, gaps in import/export control regimes and inadequate enforcement.
The third section provides operational details about gunrunning—the role of brokers and shippers (chapter 6) and that of financiers (chapter 7). At present, it is perfectly legal for an arms broker to sit in an office in Park Lane in London, say, and arrange arms shipments from countries with weak export controls to the warring parties in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Provided the weapons do not touch British soil, these dealers are unhindered by Britain’s arms export controls. Brian Wood and Johan Peleman show how easily brokers and transporters change identities and bases of operation in order to deceive customs and law-enforcement officials. The task of the traffickers is made even easier when only a few states have appropriate laws to regulate the activities of “third party” arms brokers. As Lora Lumpe concludes, “the net result is few criminal investigations and even fewer prosecutions of illicit traffickers” (p. 225). This is a major loophole that will need to be addressed at the 2001 conference.
Proposals for cleaning up and regulating the sleazy world of the arms dealers, together with other proposals for combating arms trafficking, are the focus of the fourth section. The book’s final two chapters review obstacles to the effective national and international enforcement of laws. They also assess diplomatic initiatives to further international co-operation in this area. In particular, Sarah Meek provides a useful assessment of the negotiations under way to establish new norms and conventions to control arms sales, exports and other forms of transfer.
If the book has a weakness it is the almost total focus on the supply side of the black market. While the authors recognise that demand for small arms by individuals, non-state actors and states is fed by insecurity, oppression and instability, there is no attempt to address the demand side of the problem. The reason is clear enough, and is acknowledged by the editor in the preface: “In many cases eradicating these root causes is even more difficult than diminishing the supply of the tools of mass violence” (p. ix). Of course, the question of how to create the positive economic, political and social environments necessary to reduce demand for small arms is an immense task meriting numerous studies in its own right. Nonetheless, a chapter or two to illustrate the types of demand-side problems that facilitate illicit gun use would not have been amiss.
Overall, however, this study constitutes an invaluable resource for policy makers. International efforts by governments and civil society groups to tackle the problems caused by the destabilising accumulation and uncontrolled trafficking of small arms are beginning to gather pace. This book advances the state of knowledge about both the legal and illegal small-arms trade. By illuminating the mechanisms and people involved in this murky business, as well as proposing a series of concrete objectives and practical measures to curb the illegal weapons traffic, it also gives impetus to those of us working towards a successful outcome at the 2001 conference. The proposals contained in Running Guns: The Global Black Market in Small Arms ought to be at the heart of our efforts to control small-arms transfers, which sow instability and wreak terrible destruction in many parts of the world.
