WEAPONS AND GLOBALIZATION

Understand how globalization works

Learn how arms invaded the world trade system

Work for arms control / regulation

LEADING COUNTRIES

Most Developed Countries (MDCs)

DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Less Developed Countries (LDCs)

EMERGING COUNTRIES

(large definition)

POOR / UNDERDEVELOPED COUNTRIES

Least Developed Countries (LLDCs)

IN FRENCH UE ALENA ASEAN APEC ZLEA

IN ENGLISH EU NAFTA ASEAN APEC FTZAs

TRANSLATION EU North American Free Trade Alliance

Association of South East Asian Nations

Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation

Free Trade Zone of the Americas

Trade alliances / areas of economic cooperation :Most of the time, globalization operates within giant economic zones: there, trade is structured, and cooperation / partnership enables a better interconnection between countries

DOES GLOBALIZATION FACILITATE ARMS TRADE?

• The networks improve communications and operates fast exchanges• An open market enables transactions even though informal or illegal:

less regulation = less control • Off-shore financial centres (tax havens) create vast opportunities for

money laundering and illicit money transfers • The networks provide a capability to mafias to act against freedoms /

democracies = have a tremendous effect on the ability of groups to organize, proliferate and act globally

• The internet is being used to indoctrinate new members into terrorist/extremist organizations and bombard them with a “steady stream of propaganda”

• Globalization was boosted by the end of the Cold War: when the USSR stopped stockpiling millions of weapons in its arsenals, a tremendous underground arms market developed in the world…

WHAT KIND OF WEAPONS ARE PRODUCED AND TRADED?

Conventional / illicit weapons (chemicals)War weaponsSmall arms(AK47)Cluster munitions / bombs + landmines

“In the past, arms control has tended to focus on nuclear weapons or on limiting major items of equipment - like tanks or artillery pieces”. But over recent years “governments have increasingly been looking at controlling the world's real killers - things like anti-personnel landmines that kill and maim tens of thousands every year. Just as with anti-personnel land mines, many of these conflicts are being waged within states and the victims are often civilians”

It is estimated that 875M small arms are in circulation today

in the world

Small arms

Non-sense Criminal Profitable Responsible

WHY ARE GUNS PRODUCED AND TRADED?

Place the reasons where you think they belong to the box

... ... ... ...

Others…

...

Place the reasons where you think they belong to the box

To gain money – to defend one’s country – to support resistance fighters – to attack an enemy country – to kill or hurt civilians – to defeat an enemy – to terrorize – to gain territory - …

Non-sense Criminal Profitable Responsible Others…

WHY ARE GUNS PRODUCED AND TRADED?

Arms trade is profitable:

(UN report) « The arms industry is a truly global phenomenon. Guns, ammunition and other larger weaponry mean big business all over the world, and where there’s money to be made there will always be a corrupt or criminal element “looking to capitalize on the market”. → An AK47 sold in the US is priced at $ 500. It costs $ 1,500 in Brunei…

The arms sales of the top 100 arms companies amounted to $315 billion in 2006.

In 2004 over $30 billion were spent in the international arms trade (a figure that excludes domestic sales of arms).

The arms trade has also been one of the sectors impacted by the credit crunch, with total deal value in the market declining from US $32.9bn to US $14.3bn in 2008

Integrated into global market issues

The gun lobby is a decisive actor

(BBC News) « Most governments agree that steps should be taken to tighten up export regulations, to bolster the exchange of information on arms transfers and so on. But the Bush administration in the United States has insisted that there are some things it will not accept, like limits on the transfer of small arms to non-state actors and controls on the domestic sale and manufacture of small arms. President Bush is clearly responding to the concerns of the powerful gun lobby in the United States, but he also sees America's ability to arm opposition groups abroad as

being under threat. »

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1430314.stm

The link between politics and the arms trade was called by US President Dwight D. Eisenhower a military-industrial-congressional complex, « where the armed forces, commerce, and politics become closely linked ».(UN) « The European Defence system is more or less analogous to the U.S. military-industrial complex. Various corporations, some publicly held, others private, bid for these

contracts, which are often worth many billions of dollars ».

The Iron Triangle

Lobbies

Politicians

Industries

HOW DID GLOBALIZATION ENABLE AND ENCOURAGE

SUCH A TRAFFIC?

A WIDER MARKET

A CLOSER

CUSTOMER

Globalization is having a tremendous effect on the ability of terrorist and criminal organizations to act on a global scale.

In today’s world, the main threat to many states comes from small groups and other organizations, which are not states.

The illegal organizations are using asymmetrical means to target state interests, at home and abroad.

Definition...

The networks provides a capability to potential adversaries to freedoms as well as to democratic interests.

Mafias and criminal organizations can communicate, move finances, and plan operations utilizing the same tools as large corporations and states.

??WARS

WEB =

FREEDOM ?

ARE THERE ARMS BUSINESSMEN?Adnan Khashoggi = the wealthiest man of the world in 1980s = Saudi Arabian businessman = began his arms trading career in the 1960s, making deals between US companies and the Saudi government = did the same between Dassaut and Iraq, selling Mirage III fighter aircraft for $30M gratifications)= most famous clients were Lockheed (Lockheed Martin), who during the early 1970s paid him $106 million in commissions = concealed his financial dealings by setting up front companies in tax havens such as Switzerland= arrested in 1988, acquitted 2 years later = resided in Monaco and died there

Dale StoffelIraqi Wars

Sarkis Soghanalian« The Merchant of Death »Iraq-Iran War (1980s)

Mercenaries

With the backing of states of state agencies (CIA, etc.)

Collect funds in the tax havens (the shadow zones of the global economy)

« Lord of war », Andrew Niccol, 2006

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3t9dm_lord-of-war-generique-debut_news#.UVUkqDed58E

Portrays an illegal arms dealer with similarities to post-Soviet arms dealer Viktor Bout.

HOW FAR IS IT A PROBLEM?

A slide on arms trade:

http://fr.slideshare.net/ISN_Zurich/arms-trade-20002010

Who buys and who sells?

Are you surprised and by what?

Does it reflect the world economic differences?

A video on arms trade:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9RSBmk-TXg Tell the major issues that arms trade developedRetain 3 numbers that shock you the mostGive 2 possible solutions to end or limit such a traffic

Case study: Mali and arms trafficking

Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith, in Arabic) along with the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) implemented an extreme form of sharia in the cities they control, stoning, whipping and amputating transgressors. Occupying northern Mali, they called for other fighters to join them and found many sympathisers.

Is it the way it happened?

What happened in Mali? (France 24 – English version)- Mali, once one of the region's most stable democracies, rapidly imploded after a Tuareg rebellion for independence began in January 2012 and overwhelmed the state's poorly equipped army.- Angry over the government's handling of the crisis, soldiers staged a coup in March, which only made it easier for the rebels to seize a string of desert towns. - The secular separatists were quickly sidelined by Islamists fighting on their flanks who had little interest in their aspirations for an independent homeland and set about implementing strict sharia law.- Arms trade had already bloomed in the wave of the Libyan revolution: the armament of resistance fighters who destroyed Gaddafi’s regime became an uncontrolled issue, as militias used the arms power as a political one = the Sahel region came out of control

Libyan revolution

ARMs

Tuareg protests Islamization and militarization

War

ARMs

Saudi Arabia, gun merchants

CAN SOMETHING BE DONE?

TO CONCLUDE

Globalization facilitates arms trafficking

Arms sellers use the world as a global market

Globalization needs regulations, by states and UN actors

Civilians have to get involved: the global issues are theirs