Small Arms and Light Weapons Trade

1
(No Transcript)
2
Small Arms and Light Weapons Trade Cross
Border Controls

• Glenn L. Pierce, Ph.D.
• College of Criminal Justice, Northeastern
  University

3
SALW as an issue

• Increased attention to adverse impact on civilian
  populations
• Small Arms Survey estimated
• 300,000 intentional firearms deaths per year
  annually from armed conflict
• 200,000 are killed annually in countries that are
  peaceful

4
SALW Control Strategies

• SALW Import/Export Control Regime (Focus of this
  presentation)
• Develop firearms tracing capacity
• Develop Ballistics Imaging capacity
• Other e.g., Weapons collection and destruction
  programs
• Develop tactical and strategic information
  analysis capacity

5
Nature of the SALW Market

• Much of the International Market controlled by
  Brokers.
• Finite Number
• Motivated by profit
• expertise in int. customs controls
• Today more than ever before, brokers play a key
  role fueling the illicit arms trade and
  sustaining conflict (Small Arms, 2001 Chapter.
  3)
• Characterized primarily by point
  sources/suppliers
• Market also has less conventional actors such as
  arms smugglers or traffickers tend to be a
  combination of point and diffuse sources

6
Volume of SALW International Trade

• Secrecy for Int. arms sales makes exact figures
  elusive
• 7-10 billion Licit Global Trade.
• 2-3 billion Illicit Global Trade.
• 463 Million by U.S. in 1998
• Much of the flow of weapons is from
  industrialized nations to regions of civil
  conflict

7
(No Transcript)
8
(No Transcript)
9
Legal and organizational structure

• Policy to Operational Continuum
• Formal Continuum (1) Statute
  (2) Regulations (3)
  Forms
• Customs Specific (1) AECA
  (2) ITAR
  (3) DSP5

10
Arms Control Export ActTITLE 22 - FOREIGN
RELATIONS AND INTERCOURSE CHAPTER 39 - ARMS
EXPORT CONTROL SUBCHAPTER III - MILITARY EXPORT
CONTROLS -HEAD- Sec. 2778. Control of arms
exports and imports -STATUTE-

• (a) Presidential control of exports and imports
  of defense articles and services, guidance of
  policy, etc. designation of United States
  Munitions List issuance of export licenses
  negotiations information (1) In furtherance of
  world peace and the security and foreign policy
  of the United States, the President is authorized
  to control the import and the export of defense
  articles and defense services and to provide
  foreign policy guidance to persons of the United
  States involved in the export and import of such
  articles and services. The President is
  authorized to designate those items which shall
  be considered as defense articles and defense
  services for the purposes of this section and to
  promulgate regulations for the import and export
  of such articles and services. The items so
  designated shall constitute the United States
  Munitions List.

11
International Traffic in Arms Regulations  
Title 22 -- Foreign Relations   Chapter I --
Department of State   Subchapter M --
International Traffic in Arms Regulations    

• Part 120  
• Purpose, Background and Definitions  
• Sec. 120.1 General.  
• (a) Purpose. Section 38 of the Arms Export
  Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2778) authorizes the
  President to control the export and import of
  defense articles and defense services. It is the
  purpose of this subchapter to implement this
  authority. The statutory authority of the
  President to promulgate regulations with respect
  to exports of defense articles and defense
  services was delegated to the Secretary of State
  by Executive Order 11958, as amended (42 FR
  4311). By virtue of delegations of authority by
  the Secretary of State, these regulations are
  primarily administered by the Director of the
  Office of Munitions Control, Bureau of
  Politico-Military Affairs, Department of State
  (35 FR 5422).

12
DSP - 5 form
13
Legal and organizational issues

• Generally the laws and regulations are methodical
  and comprehensive manner by which it defines the
  roles of the parties, the procedures to be
  followed and the collection of the identities of
  those parties.
• All documents and forms have force of law
• Problems due to the multi-agency approach
  employed in administering the regime which
  creates bureaucratic boundaries between agencies
  with different responsibilities not so for
  imports

14
Information Acquisition

• Scope and process of data collection generally
  appropriate
• Major limitation
• The system is deficient in not collecting serial
  numbers of weapons
• Major loophole in the U.S. export control regime
  because weapons recovered overseas by foreign law
  enforcement agencies are not linked to their
  export from the U.S.
• Until a linkage is established between the
  weapon, the export and the exporter, no
  investigation is possible under the AECA, which
  is the only statute that covers the illegal
  export of weapons from the U.S. - esp. important
  for secondary market weapons

15
Information Access and Integration

• Agency-specific information systems
• Customs, DOS and relevant security databases
• Creates familiar silo based systems
• Raises barriers to cross referencing databases
  for law enforcement and security purposes

16
Organizational alignment with resources

• Customs has the authority and resources to
  investigate export violations not the authority
  to impose civil penalties
• Department of State has the authority to impose
  civil penalties but does not have the
  investigative resources
• Civil penalties may be the best type of sanction
  for business-based exports violators

17
Policy Options Available to Control the Export of
SALW from the U.S. and Other Nations

• Implement stronger civil controls for SALW
  violations
• Create U.S. Export Registry for SALW
• Create data sharing capabilities between U.S.
  regulatory agencies and across trans-national
  borders
• Adopt uniform benchmarking/assessment methods for
  international SALW controls
• Leverage information technology to enhance
  intelligence capabilities and org. coordination

18
(No Transcript)