June 2011

In this issue:

• The Arms Trade Treaty negotiations: seize the opportunity (essay)
• SIPRI news
• SIPRI events and activities
• SIPRI in the media
• SIPRI staff news
• Recent publications

The Arms Trade Treaty negotiations: seize the opportunity

Paul Holtom and Mark Bromley

SIPRI EthicalCargo Project ends phase I, launches film

SIPRI’s EthicalCargo project marked the end of phase I of its outreach activities with the release of an awareness-raising film and trailer in June. Clearing the Air highlights the role that air transport plays in African conflicts as well as the positive steps the humanitarian aid community has taken to reduce the risk of hiring companies involved in arms trafficking.  EthicalCargo is an information clearing house serving the global humanitarian aid community. During its 18-month first phase, the project undertook more than 60 training and outreach sessions in Africa, Europe and North America in which more than 500 humanitarian aid and peace support professionals participated. In addition to a 500-page manual and a wide range of other training materials, EthicalCargo disseminates information via Twitter, Youtube and email alerts. The project continues to provide risk assessment services to humanitarian agencies using air cargo companies through a 24-hour hotline. SIPRI would like to thank the Humanitarian Aid department of the European Commission (ECHO) and the Swedish International Development and Cooperation Agency (SIDA) for their generous support during phase I.

For more information visit the EthicalCargo project website here and contact Hugh Griffiths, Head of the Countering Illicit Trafficking-Mechanism Assessment Projects (CIT-MAP), for further information.

Fifth issue of Mercury Project newsletter out now

Upcoming SIPRI events and activities

29 June Brussels		SIPRI Yearbook 2011 presented in Brussels SIPRI will present key findings of the new SIPRI Yearbook at a lunch session during a NATO conference on Shaping NATO’s Reform Agenda. The conference is organized by the Security and Defence Agenda (SDA) and will take place at the Cercle Gaulois. Read more about the event here and contact Pauline Massart at SDA for further information.
Recent SIPRI events and activities
15 June Stockholm		SIPRI Yearbook 2011 launch event in Stockholm On the occasion of the launch of SIPRI Yearbook 2011, SIPRI held a launch event in Stockholm. Key issues discussed were: 'the changing global political order and its implications for resource conflict', 'financing military spending with revenues from natural resources—insights from Africa', 'resource conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo', 'the nuclear non-proliferation challenge in the Middle East and North Africa region', 'arms transfers and the conflict in Libya', and 'challenges in establishing a sanctions regime—the case of Iran and Turkey’s arms industry, a strong regional player'. Review the whole programme here and watch individual presentations on SIPRI's YouTube channel here.
13-14 June Stockholm		International Luxembourg Forum Conference SIPRI and the International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe (ILF) organized an International Luxembourg Forum conference looking at the implications of the entry into force of the New START treaty and focusing on the case of Iran. SIPRI and ILF held a press briefing entitled ‘Nuclear non-proliferation: myth or reality’ on 13 June. Read more about the outcome of the meeting here and see some media coverage here.				At the ILF press briefing: (from left) former SIPRI Chairman Amb. Rolf Ekéus, ILF President Dr Viatcheslav Kantor, SIPRI Director Dr Bates Gill and former IAEA Director-General Amb. Hans Blix.
8-9 June Sarajevo		Export control seminar in Bosnia and Herzegovina SIPRI Researcher Ivana Mićić chaired and gave presentations at an interagency seminar held in Jahorina, near Sarajevo, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The seminar was intended to strengthen interagency cooperation and enhance export control in BiH. It was organized in the framework of the European Union programme EU Cooperation in Export Control of Dual-use Goods, which is implemented by the German Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA). Read more about the EU cooperation programme here and contact Ivana Mićić for more information
30-31 May Stockholm		SIPRI hosts EU foreign policy seminar SIPRI, in cooperation with the Utrikespolitiska Institutet (UI, Swedish Institute of International Affairs) and the Institut für Europäische Politik (IEP, Institute for European Politics), hosted a seminar entitled The EU’s Foreign Policy—How to Forward Internal Unity and External Strength? Views from Germany, Poland, Nordic and Baltic countries. The seminar looked at crucial issues of European foreign policy: subregional cooperation, the European Action Service, the European Neighborhood Policy and the EU as a foreign policy actor in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Read more and download key papers here.
26 May Brussels		SIPRI expert addresses European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee SIPRI Senior Fellow Dr Neil Melvin, Director of the Armed Conflict Programme, was a speaker at the hearing of the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee on the EU Strategy for Central Asia. Read more here and contact Neil Melvin for more information.
24-26 May Singapore		12th International Export Control Conference: Building the Network of Non-proliferators SIPRI’s Export Control Project team participated in a conference that brought together 300 officials from more than 70 countries to discuss export, brokering, transit and trans-shipment controls for items that have both civilian and military applications. SIPRI Senior Researcher Dr Sibylle Bauer, Head of the Export Control Project, gave a presentation entitled ‘Prosecution—lessons learned from past cases and judgments’ and SIPRI Researcher Ivana Mićić presented on ‘Investigations—lessons learned from past cases’. SIPRI Senior Researcher Aaron Dunne co-moderated a session on enforcement. The conference was jointly sponsored by the European Union, the Singaporean Government and the United States Government. Read more here and contact Sibylle Bauer for more information.
23-24 May Brussels		Kick-off meeting of the EU Non-proliferation Consortium The EU Non-proliferation Consortium, a Europe-wide network of independent think tanks working on issues related to non-proliferation, held its first consultative meeting. Participants represented think tanks, EU member states and EU institutions. Senior Researcher Dr Paul Holtom, Director of the SIPRI Arms Transfers Programme, gave a presentation on the Arms Trade Treaty. Read more here and contact SIPRI Research Assistant Lina Grip, Coordinator of the SIPRI EU Non-proliferation Consortium project, for more information.

SIPRI in the media

SIPRI Yearbook 2011 has been featured in more than 1300 media outlets worldwide since its launch on 7 June. Contact Stephanie Blenckner for more details and a full report on Yearbook media coverage.

The SIPRI co-organized International Luxembourg Forum Conference in Stockholm was reported by Swedish TV4, among others.

SIPRI Armed Conflict and Conflict Management Programme Director Dr Neil Melvin gave a long interview to the Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) on the first anniversary of the violence in Osh, Kyrgyzstan.

SIPRI Senior Researcher Bernt Berger commented on China's operations in the South China Sea for the Finnish daily Hufvudstadsbladet.

SIPRI Senior Fellow Siemon Wezeman commented on the arms race between India and Pakistan for The National (Abu Dhabi).

Jon Fowler, Training Manager of the EthicalCargo Project, and Delphine Hobé, Trainer of the EthicalCargo Project, had an article entitled ‘A new approach to reduce the negative impacts of aid: the ethical procurement of air cargo services’ published on the Groupe URD website. The article was picked up by ReliefWeb.

SIPRI data was quoted in a CNBC report on military aircraft spending.

Recent publications

		SIPRI Yearbook 2011: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security The 42nd edition of the SIPRI Yearbook includes coverage of developments during 2010 in major armed conflicts, multilateral peace operations, military expenditure, arms production, international arms transfers, world nuclear forces and fissile material stocks, nuclear arms control and non-proliferation, reduction of security threats from chemical and biological materials, conventional arms control, controls on security-related international transfers and multilateral arms embargoes. Read more here. To order a copy, click here.
		SIPRI Policy Paper Conflict Minerals in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Aligning Trade and Security Interventions Ruben de Koning Mineral resources have played a crucial role in fuelling protracted armed conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This new SIPRI Policy Paper examines the the prospects for and interactions between various trade- and security-related initiatives that are aimed at demilitarizing the supply chains of key minerals. It also describes the changing context in which such initiatives operate. Finally, it offers policy recommendations for how the Congolese Government and international actors can coordinate and strengthen their responses in order to break resource–conflict links in eastern DRC. Download the Policy Paper here.
		SIPRI Fact Sheet Reporting to the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms Paul Holtom, Lucie Béraud-Sudreau and Henning Weber The key international mechanism for states to report on international arms transfers is the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms (UNROCA). UNROCA was established to build confidence and cooperation between states. The information provided by states to UNROCA is used in analyses of states’ intentions and capabilities and in bilateral or regional consultations to help avoid misinterpretations, miscalcu­lations and the exaggeration of threats that can influence arms races and armed conflicts. Download the Fact Sheet here.
		SIPRI Fact Sheet National reports on arms exports Henning Weber and Mark Bromley Since the early 1990s an increasing number of governments have chosen to publish national reports on their arms exports. These reports vary enormously in both the amount of information they contain and the level of detail they provide. This Fact Sheet compares the level of detail provided in national reports on arms exports produced worldwide. Download the Fact Sheet here.
		SIPRI Background Paper Arms transfers to Zimbabwe: implications for an arms trade treaty Lukas Jeuck Zimbabwe has suffered high levels of political violence since 2000. While some states, along with the European Union, have responded by imposing arms embargoes, others have expressed no concern about the situation. The most prominent supplier of arms to Zimbabwe has been China, which supplied more than one-third of the volume of Zimbabwe’s major weapons between 1980 and 2009. Russia has identified Zimbabwe as a potential market for its arms but has yet to make many deliveries. While the United Kingdom was a major supplier in the 1980s and 1990s, it has since stopped selling arms to Zimbabwe. Download the Background Paper here.
		SIPRI Monograph Governing the Bomb: Civilian Control and Democratic Accountability of Nuclear Weapons edited by Hans Born, Bates Gill and Heiner Hänggi ISBN 978-0-19-958990-6 With a special emphasis on civilian control and democratic accountability, Governing the Bomb seeks to illuminate the structures and processes of nuclear weapon governance of eight nuclear-armed states: the USA, Russia, the UK, France and China as well as Israel, India and Pakistan. It examines the theoretical as well as practical functions and structures of those who possess the power to make nuclear decisions and those who have the practical means and physical opportunity to execute those decisions. Read more and order the book here.