A fairer world - The Tasmanian Center for Global Learning
Did you know?
  • Four of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the US, UK, France and Russia – are also the world’s top four arms suppliers. *
  • Small arms claim more than 500,000 lives a year, the majority of them in the world’s poorest countries. *

Take action

The arms trade 

'Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.'
Martin Luther King Jr

The multibillion-dollar arms trade facilitates repression, violence, death and destruction on an unimaginable scale - for example the estimated 3.8 million deaths that resulted from the recent civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.*  Yet the industry wields immense political influence, often to the point of enjoying direct representation in the highest echelons of government [see below].

Western arms manufacturers continue to supply arms to repressive regimes and to export barbaric devices such as anti-personnel mines, cluster bombs and torture equipment. Recent campaigns have made progress towards curbing the arms trade and making it more accountable, but the industry is flourishing in the atmosphere of militarism and paranoia created by recent terrorist attacks and the Bush administration's ‘war on terror’.

The political influence of arms manufacturers

  • When the George W. Bush administration first took office it appointed 32 executives, paid consultants, or major shareholders of weapons contractors to top policymaking positions in the Pentagon, the National Security Council, the Department of Energy (involved in nuclear weapons development), and the State Department. Meanwhile, former British Prime Minister John Major was appointed Chairman of the European branch of the Carlyle Group, one of the world's leading investors in the armaments industry. For more information about the revolving door between government and arms manufacturers, see the Arms Trade Resource Center and GlobalSecurity.org.

  • Western arms exporters also enjoy substantial government subsidies. See for example the Campaign Against Arms Trade and the Federation of American Scientists.

Western arms sales to repressive regimes

  • With the sanction of Western governments, Western arms manufacturers continue to export arms to governments known to be involved in repression and human rights violations. The recipients include Indonesia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Nepal and Uzbekistan - a country whose repressive measures have included boiling people alive*. Such sales are often justified on the grounds that the recipient regimes are allies in the 'war against terror'. For more information see the Campaign Against Arms Trade and the Federation of American Scientists.

  • The European Commission has published a draft regulation to ban member states from trading in 'equipment and products which could be used for capital punishment, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment'. At present, Western governments including the UK continue to sanction the export of torture instruments such as leg irons and electroshock batons. See the Guardian and Amnesty International.

Small arms and landmines

  • There are currently 650 million small arms in the world. One person is killed every minute by armed violence, yet there are no comprehensive international controls on the arms trade. See the International Action Network on Small Arms to find about more about the campaign to curb the small arms trade.

  • For detailed information on the impact of small arms in Africa, see the UN's journal Africa Renewal (formerly called Africa Recovery).

  • For information on landmines see our section The human cost of war.


Copyright and privacy information