Small Arms and Light Weapons - Harry Frank Guggenheim ...

hired air cargo companies willing to fly into combatzones, and paid kick-backs to corrupt officialsto cover up the paper trail of their illegal deals.The control of arms brokers—currently only aminority of the world’s states have legislation totackle the problem—would add substantially tothe transparency of a market which is oftenclouded by secrecy. There is only limited documentationof the transport and logistics of the armstrade, apart from air transport. Furthermore, theknowledge of the financial infrastructure involvedin illicit small arms deals is patchy. Links betweenthe trade in different illicit commodities (weapons,drugs, human beings, precious gems and metals,etc.) are only partially elucidated.Although particular illicit small arms deals aredocumented, there is still no comprehensiveoverview of the illicit market in small arms available.This is no doubt in part because it is moredifficult to gain a full picture of the illicit smallarms trade than, say, the illicit drug trade, as smallarms demand can shift more quickly and radicallythan demand in other illicit commodities. Also, itis arguably more difficult to assess the trade of adurable good than a consumer good such as drugs.The Supply SideSmall arms transfers do not influence the relativemilitary might of the majority of the world’s states.Yet the amount of small arms and ammunitionavailable can tip the military balance between state(and/or nonstate) actors in conflicts where fewmajor conventional weapons are available. This isthe case in a number of internal conflicts in Africa,Asia, and Latin America. Often, small arms are theonly type of weapons available to insurgent groups,thereby determining to what extent armed uprisingsare possible.Although not normally considered strategicallyimportant, small arms and light weapons are dominantin many current conflicts. In fact, whilemost major conventional weapons produced andtransferred are never used in actual combat, smallarms are among the military equipment that ismost likely to be employed in conflict today. Theyare also regularly involved directly in human rightsviolations in states not involved in conflict.Furthermore, in many societies, violent crimecommitted with guns is so common as to threatenthe economic and social basis of the community.In light of all this, we need more research followingthe trails of small arms production, arsenals,and transfers.Notes1. End-user certificates are documents provided bythe country of destination of the weapons assuring theauthorities of exporting countries that the final use/userof the weapons is legitimate.30