The NO-NONSENSE GUIDE to
THE ARMS TRADE
Publishers have created lists of short books that discuss the questions that your average [electoral] candidate will only ever touch if armed with a slogan and a soundbite. Together [such books] hint at a resurgence of the grand educational tradition Closest to the hot headline issues are The No-Nonsense Guides. These target those topics that a large army of voters care about, but that politicos evade. Arguments, figures and documents combine to prove that good journalism is far too important to be left to (most) journalists.
Boyd Tonkin,
The Independent,
London
About the author
Nicholas Gilby led Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT)s efforts to expose the corruption in British arms deals with Saudi Arabia. In 2008, he defeated Britains Foreign and Commonwealth Office in an Information Tribunal to force the disclosure of many documents concerning corruption in Britains arms deals with Saudi Arabia.
As a former member of CAATs Steering Committee, he was closely involved in CAATs attempt to force the Serious Fraud Office to re-open its corruption investigation relating to BAEs arms deals with Saudi Arabia, as well as CAATs efforts to combat the espionage carried out against it.
His research on arms trade corruption has been featured in The Guardian (and on the newspapers BAE files website), TV (BBC Newsnight and Al Jazeera) and in an academic journal. He was previously a director of TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign.
The NO-NONSENSE GUIDE to
THE ARMS TRADE
Nicholas Gilby
The No-Nonsense Guide to The Arms Trade
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First published in the UK by
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Nicholas Gilby/New Internationalist 2009
This edition not to be sold outside Canada.
Cover image: Qilai Shen/Panos
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ISBN 978-1-771130-65-3 (epub)
ISBN 978-1-771130-93-6 (PDF)
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Between the Lines gratefully acknowledges assistance for its publishing activities from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program and through the Ontario Book Initiative, and the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund.
As the world faces new crises over the climate and the global economy, some people might be tempted to ignore old issues like the global arms trade. We do so at our peril. As Nicholas Gilby writes in this excellent, succinct study, arms profiteers are looking to make money from new forms of potential conflict, which will be exacerbated unless the arms trade is halted.
The worlds five largest arms exporters the US, Russia, Germany, France and Britain together sold around $20 billion worth of weapons in 2007. The recipients include an array of human rights abusers, countries in conflict and poor, sometimes fragile states whose lites are wasting their countries scarce resources. These weapons have sometimes helped put down popular demonstrations against repressive regimes or exacerbated internal conflicts and human rights abuses, as in the Darfur region of Sudan or in Colombia. Arms exports can also raise tensions between rivals and increase the prospect of regional wars, as with the arming of India and Pakistan or China and Taiwan. Indeed, some arms exporters, notably the US and Britain, have a habit of arming both sides in regional disputes. US weapons are present in half the worlds armed conflicts.
The biggest arms pushers are, with the exception of Russia, all member states of NATO; they are Western states that regularly preach about how the rest of the world is endangering us. The reality is that it is we who often pose the biggest threats to world peace. Nowhere is this clearer than in the case of Britain, which sold 45 billion ($66 billion) worth of arms around the world in New Labours first decade in power after 1997. Over 100 million of military equipment went to Israel throughout a period of offensive operations in the occupied territories and war with Lebanon. Half a billion pounds worth of British military and related equipment has gone to China, which is supposed to be under an EU arms embargo. Despite British prime ministers posing as the champions of the worlds poor, they also continue to sell unaffordable weapons to many African countries.
But as Nicholas Gilby points out, it is not only actual weapons transfers that give cause for concern, but the associated practises of official military training programs, private mercenary companies playing key roles in conflicts, the marketing of arms through international trade fairs, the extent of taxpayer subsidies for military production, and widespread corruption not to mention espionage by some arms companies against campaigners.
The task of addressing this array of issues is not small and the arms industry is deeply entrenched in many countries. Yet there are some international mechanisms in place that, if deepened and widened, can begin to control the global arms trade. Moreover, in some countries recently, campaigning groups have exposed corruption in arms deals and continue to reveal the costs of arms transfers for human rights and development. Policy-makers are under pressure and the bar is being raised; it is up to us to continue to strive for an end to this business of death, and this study provides an indispensable information tool to help us do so.
