| SIPRI Update: Global Security & Arms Control | July/August 2008 |
Welcome to the July/August 2008 issue of SIPRI Update: Global Security & Arms Control. This monthly newsletter will be your source for the latest developments in international security, arms control, non-proliferation and conflict, including recent SIPRI activities and publications.
In this issue:
| Combating the illicit trade in small and light weapons | Back to top |
Paul Holtom, SIPRI Researcher
Small arms and light weapons (SALW) inflict death and hamper development throughout the world. International gatherings to combat the illicit trade in SALW are therefore to be welcomed. But the Third Biennial Meeting of States (BMS) on SALW, held in New York in July, had a mixed outcome. While a carefully constructed agenda and pre-drafted outcome document meant that the meeting was a nominal success, few new ideas emerged.
The BMS was the main positive outcome of the 2006 Small Arms Review Conference, which had been convened to assess implementation and possible expansion of the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat, and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (POA). China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Russia and the United States had helped to ensure that the Review Conference concluded without agreement on a final report—the 2006 conference thus failed to provide a mandate for a further review in 2011 or guidance on implementation of the POA. It was hoped that the 2008 BMS would signal that states were still committed to the POA process.
| SIPRI welcomes Dr Evan Medeiros | Back to top |
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SIPRI is pleased to announce the arrival of Dr Evan Medeiros as a Guest Researcher for three months. Dr Medeiros is a Senior Political Scientist with the RAND Corporation and recently published an authoritative book on the evolution of Chinese non-proliferation policies, Reluctant Restraint: The Evolution of Chinese Non-Proliferation Policies and Practices. Dr Medeiros has just completed a year-long Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship working as policy adviser to the US Treasury Department’s US–China Strategic Economic Dialogue. At SIPRI, he will work on a project comparing Asian and European approaches to regional integration and institution building. His work at SIPRI is supported by a grant from the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (STINT). ‘We are extremely happy to have such an accomplished specialist of China and Asian security with us at SIPRI’, said Dr Bates Gill, SIPRI Director. ‘He will help us further build out our profile on the changing security landscape in Asia, and we very much look forward to working with him’. |
| Job vacancy: Communications Officer | Back to top |
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As part of a reinvigorated outreach and profile-building effort, SIPRI seeks an energetic person of vision and experience to lead our strategic communications work. Working with the SIPRI’s senior management, the successful candidate will shape and implement a long-term communications strategy for the institute and further expand SIPRI’s international profile with media, policy, business, research and philanthropic communities around the world. Click here for more information on the job description and application process |
| SIPRI Yearbook 2008: summary in Dutch | Back to top |
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In addition to the English summary booklet, SIPRI Yearbook 2008 is now available summarized in Dutch, published in partnership with the Flemish Peace Institute. Summaries in Catalan, French, German, Spanish and Swedish are currently in preparation. More on SIPRI Yearbook 2008, including ordering information, is available at yearbook2008.sipri.org. |
| Recent SIPRI events | Back to top |
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17 July |
The Effectiveness of Foreign Military Assets in Natural Disaster Response At an event running in parallel to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) annual forum, SIPRI Researcher Sharon Wiharta moderated a discussion on the SIPRI report The Effectiveness of Foreign Military Assets in Natural Disaster Response. This study, commissioned and supported by UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), examines the advantages, limitations and implications of using foreign military assets in humanitarian relief operations. Read more about the report here or contact Sharon Wiharta for more information |
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15 July |
Transparency in Transfers of Small Arms and Light Weapons SIPRI Researcher Paul Holtom launched a new SIPRI Policy Paper at the Third Biennial Meeting of States on Small Arms and Light Weapons at UN headquarters. This is the first study to document and analyse information on SALW transfers reported to the UN Register of Conventional Arms (UNROCA) for 2003–2006. |
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8–11 July |
Challenges to Effective Multilateralism: Comparing European and Asian Experiences This international conference, sponsored by the Stanley Foundation in cooperation with SIPRI and with support from the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (STINT), compared the security, economic and political challenges to more effective multilateral problem-solving in Asia and in Europe. The conference generated intellectual interaction and cross-pollination between leading European and Asian experts on multilateralism. A conference report, authored by Dr Evan Medeiros, will be issued shortly by the Stanley Foundation. Click here for more details or contact Chin-hao Huang for more information |
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May–June |
Strengthening dual-use export controls Working under the framework of this EU Pilot Project in cooperation with the German Federal Office for Economics and Export Control (BAFA), SIPRI organized a series of practical seminars in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to strengthen export control enforcement in South Eastern Europe. The seminars brought together customs and licensing officials from each partner country with German, British or Dutch customs officers to share their experiences and explore the prospects for strengthening national enforcement systems. See the website of the SIPRI Non-proliferation and Export Control Project for more information |
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| SIPRI in the media | Back to top |
CNN World Report covered the launch of SIPRI Yearbook 2008 and interviewed SIPRI Director Bates Gill, Chairman of the Governing Board Rolf Ekéus, and Governing Board Member Jayantha Dhanapala on the future of arms control and disarmament.
SIPRI Researcher Mark Bromley commented on the latest reports of arms transfers to Sudan on Swiss Radio and spoke on French arms sales to the US National Public Radio.
SIPRI Director Bates Gill gave an assessment of international security and non-proliferation issues in an interview with Chinese TV station CCTV-9.
SIPRI Senior Guest Researcher Gunilla Herolf participated in a panel discussion on the Nordic Battle Group with the Swedish radio programme Studio Ett.
SIPRI Researcher Pieter Wezeman discussed the implications of Iran’s recent missile tests with Reuters.
SIPRI Researcher Paul Holtom spoke to BBC World Service’s Analysis programme about the effectiveness of UN arms embargoes.
Figures from the SIPRI Arms Transfers Database and the SIPRI Military Expenditure Database were cited by The Economist, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, Reuters, RIA Novosti, and Vedomosti (in Russian), among many others.
| SIPRI fact of the month | Back to top |
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The number of peace operations and personnel deployments worldwide continued to rise in 2007 |
A total of 61 peace operations were conducted in 2007, two more than in 2006 and the highest number since 1999. This continues a rising trend since 2002, when 48 operations were carried out. The known costs of peace operations also continued to rise in 2007 and the number of personnel deployed to such operations reached an all-time high of 169 467. The number of personnel deployed to peace operations in 2007 was 2.5 per cent more than in 2006 and 60 per cent more than in 2003. Of the deployed personnel, 150 651 were military and 18 816 were civilian. In 2007, 41 per cent of all personnel were deployed to operations in Africa. Another 27 per cent were deployed in Asia, the great majority of whom were the 41 741 troops participating in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. These findings are taken from the SIPRI Multilateral Peace Operations Database. |
| SIPRI’s latest publications | Back to top |
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SIPRI Yearbook 2008 Armaments, Disarmament and International Security Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of SIPRI ISBN 978-0-19-954895-8 ISSN 0953-0282 hardback 604 pp. £85/$150 Order from the OUP website (UK or USA) or from all good bookshops and online booksellers |
The SIPRI Yearbook is a compendium of data and analysis in the areas of
- Security and conflicts
- Military spending and armaments
- Non-proliferation, arms control and disarmament
Highlights of the 39th edition include special studies on
- a call to arms control
- the human security approach to direct and structural violence
- integrating gender in post-conflict security sector reform
- US ballistic missile defence programmes
- nuclear forensic analysis
- international public health diplomacy and the global surveillance of avian influenza
along with coverage of developments during 2007 in
- Euro-Atlantic security institutions and relationships
- armed conflicts
- peace operations
- military expenditure
- arms production
- international arms transfers
- nuclear arms control and non-proliferation
- world nuclear forces and fissile material stocks
- reducing security threats from chemical and biological materials
- conventional arms control
- controls on security-related international transfers
SIPRI Yearbook 2008 also has extensive annexes on arms control and disarmament agreements, international organizations and intergovernmental bodies, and a chronology of events during 2007 in the area of security and arms control.
Click here for SIPRI Yearbook 2008 ordering details.
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Transparency in Transfers of Small Arms and Light Weapons: Reports to the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms, 2003–2006
SIPRI Policy Paper no. 22 Paul Holtom Published by SIPRI July 2008 Download from books.sipri.org |
The UN General Assembly’s decision in 2003 to invite member states to provide information on transfers of small arms and light weapons (SALW) to the UN Register of Conventional Arms (UNROCA) has led to a notable increase in the level of transparency in transfers of SALW. This Policy Paper is the first study to document and analyse information on SALW transfers reported to UNROCA for 2003–2006. It finds that, while the level of reporting on light weapons to UNROCA was fairly steady for the years 2003–2006, a significant increase in submissions of background information followed the introduction of a standardized reporting form for 2006.
Despite this noteworthy increase, UNROCA still only captures a fraction of international SALW transfers and transparency in transfers of SALW continues to lag behind that of other conventional weapons. The findings and recommendations of this Policy Paper throw light on the continuing debate over how the coverage of UNROCA can be expanded.
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New in paperback Humanitarian Military Intervention: The Conditions for Success and Failure Taylor B. Seybolt Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of SIPRI January 2007/July 2008 ISBN 978-0-19-925243-5 hardback £40/$99 ISBN 978-0-19-955105-7 paperback £19.99/$39.95 Order from the OUP website (UK or USA) |
This study focuses on the questions of when and how military intervention in conflicts can achieve humanitarian benefits. It uses the standard that an intervention should do more good than harm to evaluate the successes and failures. The author develops a methodology to determine the number of lives saved, as a minimalist measure. The analysis of 19 military operations in the 6 case studies of Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo and East Timor reveals both successful and unsuccessful interventions in the same locations. The study posits that an intervention’s short-term effectiveness depends primarily on six factors within the control of the intervenor, rather than factors inherent within the conflict. Political and humanitarian dimensions are combined to create a typology that compares the needs of populations suffering from conflict with an intervenor’s military intervention strategies, motives, capabilities and response time. Hypotheses derived from the model are tested in the case studies and policy implications are offered.
For information on SIPRI’s other recent and forthcoming books, visit the SIPRI Publications website, books.sipri.org
Other recent publications by SIPRI authors
Mark Bromley, ‘10 years down the track—the EU Code of Conduct on Arms Exports’, European Security Review, July 2008, pp. 11–14. Read this article here
Jean-Yves Haine, ‘Battle groups: out of necessity, still a virtue?’, European Security Review, July 2008, pp. 1–5. Read this article here
Jean-Yves Haine, ‘EU’s humanitarian dilemma: EUFOR Chad’, SecurityCommunity.eu, July 2008. Read this article here
Robert Sutter and Chin-hao Huang, ‘China–Southeast Asia relations: cyclone, earthquake put spotlight on China’, Comparative Connections, vol. 10, no. 2 (July 2008), pp. 73–81. Read this article here
Ekaterina Stepanova, [Religious extremism and radical nationalism as ideologies of asymmetrical armed violence], [The dialogue between nationalism and Islam], Proceedings of the Swedish Institute in Alexandria and Centre for Arab Unity Studies (CAUS) Conference, December 2007 (CAUS: Beirut, 2008), pp. 679–89 (in Arabic). Read about this book here
Ekaterina Stepanova, [The state and the individual in modern conflicts], Mezhdunarodnyie protsessy, vol. 6, no. 1 (Jan./Apr. 2008) (in Russian). Read this article here