Last week’s focus on the growing importance of Private Military and Security Companies in military operations demonstrated, yet again, that there is profit to be made in conflict and political upheaval. Adding substance to this familiar argument is the existence of a lucrative global defense industry that not only arms and equips the world’s armed forces, but also non-state actors of varying degrees of legitimacy. The sale and transfer of small arms and conventional weapons is part of this remit, but it unfortunately extends far beyond ‘legitimate’ state-to-state transactions.

In order to better understand why and how arms transfers, whether above-board or done in the shadows, have the impact they do, especially in intra-state conflicts, we begin this week with a thumbnail sketch of the current state of the global arms trade. Since much of it falls outside of the traditional defense marketplace, on Tuesday we will cast light on the ‘under-the-table’ deals that mar the industry. In particular, we will pay special attention to Europe’s consistent inability to prosecute illicit arms traders.

Having provided an overview of the overt and behind-the-scenes sectors of the global arms trade, we will then turn to two case studies. On Wednesday we will look at the trafficking of arms to sub-Saharan Africa and ask whether such transfers create or help promote conditions that lead to or exacerbate intra-state conflict. We will then apply a similar rule-of-thumb on Thursday, when we consider the role arms transfers are playing in the political violence currently engulfing Syria. Finally, we will conclude our week-long investigation by looking at recent international efforts to establish effective rules and regulations over global arms transfers, to include the United Nations’ recent attempts to establish an Arms Trade Treaty.