Running guns: the global black market in small arms.Running Guns: The Global Black Market in Small Arms small arms, firearms designed primarily to be carried and fired by one person and, generally, held in the hands, as distinguished from heavy arms, or artillery. Early Small Arms The first small arms came into general use at the end of the 14th cent. Edited by Lora Lumpe, International Peace Research Institute, Oslo The International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO) History and governance PRIO was founded in 1959 by a group of Norwegian researchers, among these Johan Galtung. , 2000 Zed Books, London, 256 pp (Pb US $25.50, Hb $69.95) With planning underway at the United Nations for a 2001 conference on "illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects," the publication of a book on the global small arms black market is a timely contribution to the UN process. Editor Lora Lumpe, who has researched small arms issues at the International Peace Research Institute in Norway and at the Federation of American Scientists The Federation of American Scientists (FAS)[1] is a non-profit organization formed in 1945 by scientists from the Manhattan Project who felt that scientists, engineers and other innovators had an ethical obligation to bring their knowledge and experience to bear in the US, has assembled leading experts from the NGO NGO abbr. nongovernmental organization Noun 1. NGO - an organization that is not part of the local or state or federal government nongovernmental organization and academic communities to provide an informative picture of the current state of illicit trade in small arms and recommendations on how the international Community can respond. Whether the war zone be in Africa, Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (srē läng`kə) [Sinhalese,=resplendent land], formerly Ceylon, ancient Taprobane, officially Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, island republic (2005 est. pop. , Chechnya, or Afghanistan, most people are not killed by hi-tech or heavy weaponry, but by the small arms, cheap and accessible, that have flooded into so many countries in recent years. Crime rates involving guns have also soared, as South Africa South Africa, Afrikaans Suid-Afrika, officially Republic of South Africa, republic (2005 est. pop. 44,344,000), 471,442 sq mi (1,221,037 sq km), S Africa. and Kenya have experienced. Much of this cross-border small arms trade -- with some estimates as high as one-half -- is illegal. Running Guns asks the most important questions about the illegal trade in small arms. What precisely is involved? How is the trade conducted? Who are the players and who benefits? What are the impacts? What needs to be done? The book begins with a description of an illicit arms transfer operation and follows with essays illuminating the many components and actors of the black market. Among other issues, the book explores the role of governments in covert gun-running operations; the role of domestic gun markets in supplying the illegal international trade; how international arms brokers and shippers operate on the margins of the law; the sources, routes, and beneficiaries of funds used for illicit arms deals Noun 1. arms deal - a deal to provide military arms business deal, deal, trade - a particular instance of buying or selling; "it was a package deal"; "I had no further trade with him"; "he's a master of the business deal" ; and enhanced controls and other responses to the global black market in small arms. |
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