An International Issue That Deserves More Attention

We live in a time that is increasingly being defined by the processes of globalization. As influences deepen and countries become more intertwined, the number of transnational issues requiring international attention—such as global warming and resource scarcity, international terrorism, and nuclear proliferation—have exploded. One issue, in particular, has the ability to increase the severity of the others. Weapons proliferation, such as the proliferation of weapons ranging from small arms to automatic weapons of war, represents one of the biggest challenges to the stability of the international order and the viability of a possible future global governance system.

Weapons proliferation has made conflicts easier to start and much harder to settle, as well as introduce a new and demoralizing brand of modernized warfare. It has been treated as a peripheral issue in relation to the attention given to nuclear proliferation, especially amongst impoverished states in the “Bottom Billion.” However, I argue that the continuation of weapons proliferation of all sorts is a long term endorsement and practical guarantee for violence, especially amongst poorer, undeveloped countries.

In the post-Cold War era, “global military spending fell by an astonishing 35 percent. The collapse of the Soviet Union delivered a huge global peace dividend.”1 But increased perception of security throughout the developed world had adverse effects for developing nations. After Cold War settlements, large stockpiles of small armaments were left unattended as it was cheaper to dump light weapons on the world market than to destroy them.2 The result was tons of light weapons auctioned off at cut rate prices to mostly private bidders, which was only made worse by unemployed soldiers leaking weapons in order to make their next paycheck.

Additionally, countries in the “Bottom Billion” tend to have the most porous borders, making illegal importation feasible while exporting them to countries with sufficiently good border controls improbable. Thus, much like the enhanced greenhouse effect, Kalashnikovs and other small weapons bounce around a continent, flowing to wherever demand is highest and conflict is most likely.3

Cheap guns increase the risk of civil war (currently the most widespread type of fighting) making dangerous countries even more dangerous regions.4 Certainly weapons proliferation is not the only problem facing the international system, but its ability to intensify and prolong conflict make it an arguably more pressing problem for the international community to consider. It both directly and indirectly affects many other major international challenges. As such, it should be a central concern for the international community, much more than it is now.

1 Collier, Paul. “Chapter 4: Guns Fueling the Fire.” Wars, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places, by Paul Collier, Vintage Digital, 2011, pp. 106–106.

2 Singer, Peter W. “Chapter 3: The Underlying Causes.” Children at War, by Peter W. Singer, University of California Press, 2009, pp. 47–48.

3 Collier, Paul. “Chapter 4: Guns Fueling the Fire.” Wars, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places, by Paul Collier, Vintage Digital, 2011, pp. 115–116.

4 Collier, Paul. “Chapter 4: Guns Fueling the Fire.” Wars, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places, by Paul Collier, Vintage Digital, 2011, pp. 116.