Controlling Weapons of Mere Destruction
Abstract
The primary shortcoming of current arms control policies is the near-total inattention to conventional weapons proliferation. "Weapons of mere destruction," in the words of James Adams (Atlantic Monthly, Nov 1991), have been responsible for more deaths -- 24.5 million lives in 161 wars in the last 50 years -- than weapons of mass destruction. The real challenge of the New World Order is to break out of an arms transfer cycle that pushes ever more advanced weapons on countries and regions still struggling for stability and legitimacy in the new international regime. Among conventional weapons, great devastation is wrought by the largely unmonitored, unregulated, and generally unreported trade in light weapons. Light weapons have flooded nations from Rwanda, Liberia, and Somalia, to Bosnia and now Kosovo, fueling internal disputes and hampering international efforts to resolve conflict. More than a dozen nations helped supply the Rwandan war. Although much of the killing was carried out with machetes, automatic weapons were also commonly used. Although the United States probably did not supply the weapons used for the destruction in Rwanda, it nevertheless heads the list of world proliferators. As a chart compiled by the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency of the world's Top Ten Arms Exporters of 1996 shows, the United States is responsible for more than half of the world's arms transfers. This means that the United States has the opportunity to lead by example, and must do so if any credible international conventional arms control regime is to succeed. Unfortunately, the United States' efforts at conventional arms control have been halting. Key elements necessary to a conventional arms control regime are transparency, national regulation, and multilateral controls. To begin with, the United States could improve transparency, reduce taxpayer subsidies in arms marketing, and reduce the flow of its own arms around the world.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 26, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADA442530
Entities
People
- Karen C. Stanton
Organizations
- National War College