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	No Slowdown for Weapons Industry by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Sweden   Sept 2009 (IPS)   The United Nations is surprised at the continued rise in global military spending - particularly at a time when the international community is grappling with a spreading financial crisis which threatens to undermine the poverty reduction goals of the world body.   "The world is over-armed and peace is under-funded," says Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who points out that global military spending is estimated at over one trillion dollars - "and rising every day".   According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), one of the world"s foremost think tanks on arms control and disarmament, world military expenditure increased by 45 percent, in real terms, and has been rising every year during the last 10-year period.   In 2008, it reached 1.46 trillion dollars, representing 2.4 percent of world gross domestic product (GDP). Its level is now higher than during the latest Cold War peak in the 1980s.   Speaking at the annual meeting of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Mexico City early this week, the secretary-general said he was dismayed that weapons continue to be produced and are flooding markets around the world. "They are destabilising societies and feeding the flames of civil wars and terror," he warned.   During the eight-year presidency of George W. Bush, says SIPRI, U.S. military expenditure increased to the highest level in real terms since World War II, mostly due to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.   The 10 biggest military spenders last year were: the United States (607 billion dollars), China (84.9 billion), France (65.7 billion), Britain (65.3 billion), Russia (58.6 billion), Germany (46.8 billion), Japan (46.3 billion), Italy (40.6 billion), Saudi Arabia (38.2 billion) and India (30.0 billion).   China, Saudi Arabia and India were the only three developing nations in the top 10, followed by countries such as Brazil and Algeria.   Dr. Elisabeth Skons, Programme Leader of SIPRI"s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme told IPS the main reason for the strong increase in world military spending during recent year is the rise in U.S. military spending through a series of supplementary allocations for military activities in Afghanistan (since 2001) and Iraq (since 2003).   The United States accounts for a large share (41.5 percent in 2008) of world military spending, while at the same time it increased its spending significantly (by 67 percent in real terms over the most recent 10-year period through 2008), and by 71 percent in real terms between 2000 and the budget for fiscal year 2009 (according to U.S. official data).   However, many other countries are also increasing their military spending and some other major spenders have increased their military expenditure at an even higher rate than the United States, Skons pointed out.   Thus, two of the other top five military spenders, China and Russia, have nearly tripled their military spending since 1999.   On a regional level, it is only West and Central Europe that has an almost flat trend in military spending over the past 10-year period. "In all other regions, military spending has been increasing," Skons added.   The strongest regional increases over the past 10-year period were in Eastern Europe, (+174 percent in real terms), due primarily to the trend in Russia); North Africa (+94 percent); North America (66 percent); East Asia and the Middle East (with 56 percent each); while there has been a slower increase in Sub-Saharan Africa (+10 percent) and Central America (+21 percent).   There are many different factors behind the increase in world military spending over the past 10-year period, including ambitions for global or regional power status; regional tensions or other national security concerns; armed conflict; international peace missions; and internal political factors, Skons said.   Underlying some of these trends are other factors, such as more or less realistic threat perceptions, and the often-exaggerated belief that political goals can be achieved by military means.   Furthermore, it is not unlikely that the political agenda on the global war on terror pursued by the U.S. government until 2009 had the effect of facilitating increases in military spending also in some other countries. "Hopefully, this period is now behind us," she said.   Asked if the global financial crisis will eventually have an impact both on military spending and arms purchases worldwide, Skons told IPS: "It is difficult to assess the effect of the financial crisis and the subsequent recession on military spending."   She said research on military spending suggests that the impact of economic factors is smaller on military expenditure than on other types of government spending.   While the link between economic factors and military spending is significant, there are also other important factors influencing military spending, in particular various types of security factors and threat perceptions, and also past spending patterns and various interest groups.   Because of its link to national security, military spending is generally more insulated from economic factors than other public sectors, Skons added.   The actual impact of the financial crisis in each case will be the outcome of the overall balance between motivations to increase military spending and economic constraints.   In regions where the financial crisis has had a severe impact on economic development, such as in Africa, it is possible that military spending will be affected.   In other cases a strong economic downturn may not have a full impact on military spending.   A case in point is Russia, which has been strongly affected by the financial crisis, but at the same time has given strong priority to the military sector in its economic rescue packages, she added.   Asked about the much-ballyhooed post-Cold War "peace dividend", Dr Bates Gill, director of SIPRI, told IPS it was probably overly optimistic from the beginning to assume a major "peace dividend".   "What we have seen, however, is a major reduction in inter-state conflict and in the likelihood that the world"s major powers will go to war with one another in the near to medium term," he said.   However, threats to peace still exist and the nature of those threats has changed as well. In particular, Gill said: "We see the rise in threats from non-state actors and a persistent degree of instability and civil wars within states."   These challenges require states to continue spending on defence. "With these uncertainties in mind, it seems unlikely we will see a major "peace dividend" in the near future," he added.   April 2009   World arms trade grows by 20% in five years. (SIPI)   The world arms trade has expanded by more than 20 per cent in the past five years, with the Middle East and Asian countries accounting for most of the increase, according to figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).   The US was by far the largest arms supplier, accounting for 31 per cent of global weapons exports over the past five years, with more than a third going to the Middle East.   The five biggest suppliers of conventional arms were the US, Russia, Germany, France and Britain. China was the biggest recipient, followed by India, though China has recently cut its imports dramatically as it builds up its indigenous arms industry, the institute says. Arms sales to Middle Eastern countries rose 38 per cent.   Paul Holtom, head of SIPRI"s arms transfer program, said: "When the world needs co-operative solutions to global problems, the thriving international arms market points to a squandering of resources which the international community can ill afford."   * Visit the link below to access the report. Visit the related web page
	The More Guns, the More Violence by Emilio Godoy International action network on small arms Mexico   Sept. 2009 (IPS)   Traffic in light weapons and small arms is one of Latin America"s major disarmament concerns, because they fuel urban violence, especially in countries like Mexico, Guatemala and Brazil.   This is one of the issues on the agenda of the 62nd Annual Conference for Non-Governmental Organisations associated with the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI/NGO), attended by 1,700 delegates from 75 countries under the banner "For Peace and Development: Disarm Now!"   "These weapons, trafficked illegally for huge profits, are used by common criminals and organised crime to attack society and the members of the security forces," Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa said Wednesday at the start of the conference, which is being held at a former convent near the historic centre of the Mexican capital.   Small arms are a particular scourge in Mexico, because of the widespread activities of drug cartels. An undetermined number of weapons are acquired on the legal market in the United States, or are smuggled in from Central America.   Defence Ministry statistics indicate that between 2000 and 2006 a total of 257,993 firearms were destroyed, 723 lost, 2,367 stolen, 238,838 registered and 31,931 transferred between owners or jurisdictions.   Since taking office in late 2006, conservative President Felipe Calderón has deployed thousands of soldiers around the country to fight drug trafficking. However, since then drug-related killings have soared, leaving over 14,000 people dead up to August this year, according to unofficial counts.   Behind these deaths are the small and light arms which provide the drug mafias with most of their fire power.   Worldwide there are more than 500 million light arms in circulation, an average of one for every 12 people. They were instrumental in 46 out of the 49 major conflicts fought since 1990, and were responsible for the deaths of four million people, most of them civilians, women and children, according to the United Nations.   It is estimated that only about half the global trade in small arms is legal. Furthermore, legally exported weapons often end up on the black market.   Illegal dealing in small arms is estimated to net between two billion and 10 billion dollars a year, according to the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), founded in 1998 and made up of 800 NGOs from 120 countries.   Nearly seven million rifles and handguns are manufactured every year, mainly in the United States and the European Union.   To tackle the problem, a United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects was held Jul. 9-20, 2001 at U.N. headquarters in New York.   "In Mexico, armed violence and violence against women are severe problems. The more guns, the more violence," Héctor Guerra, IANSA representative in this country, told IPS.   IANSA is proposing legislation to ban or revoke firearm licenses for people convicted of using guns to commit gender violence.   The high levels of violent crime in this country of over 107 million people have had an impact on life expectancy, shortening it by more than half a year, according to a study by researchers from the United States, Canada and Switzerland published late July in the British journal Criminology and Criminal Justice.   Mexico is a keen supporter of efforts toward an international agreement on the small arms trade and fighting illegal arms traffic.   The proliferation of nuclear weapons is another concern at the DPI/NGO Conference, which runs through Friday. This is the second consecutive year that the meeting has been held outside of U.N. headquarters in New York.   In his opening address, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said "there are over 20,000 nuclear weapons around the world. Many of them are still on hair-trigger alert, threatening our own survival."   "There can be no development without peace and no peace without development. Disarmament can provide the means for both," Ban said.   The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-I) signed in 1991 by the United States and the then Soviet Union, which imposed a cap on the nuclear arsenals of both powers, expires in December.   On Sept. 24, a special session of the U.N. Security Council will discuss global nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament. A conference to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), in force since 1970, will also meet in New York in May 2010.   U.S. activist Jody Williams, winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for her campaign against land mines, told reporters Wednesday she would "press for a convention on nuclear weapons," because "if we continue to talk about the eventual elimination of these weapons," they will never actually be banned.   The Latin American and Caribbean region is a nuclear weapons-free zone under the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean, better known as the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which was signed in Mexico City in 1967. Mexico was one of the sponsors of the ban.   The U.N. strategy for achieving a world free of nuclear weapons proposes that disarmament must enhance the security of nations, be reliably verified, be rooted in legal obligations, be visible to the public and anticipate emerging dangers from other weapons, Ban said.   Williams said that if, at this critical juncture, NGOs did not step in and push for the abolition of nuclear weapons, the moment would be lost, and a new, uncontrolled and terrifying arms race might ensue - a frightening prospect for the future.   In Guerra"s view, this week"s conference should conclude with a strong declaration against all kinds of arms, particularly small arms and light weapons. Visit the related web page
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