The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Security Studies

Living Edition
| Editors: Scott Romaniuk, Manish Thapa, Péter Marton

Small-Scale Weapon Transactions

  • Júlia PalikEmail author
Living reference work entry
First Online:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74336-3_129-1
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Introduction

Weapons are tools that serve multiple purposes. They can be used for recreational purposes, self-defense, and to carry out violence. Violence and armed violence however constitute two different categories. Weapons are unique in the sense that they are “force multipliers,” meaning that they have the ability to increase the lethality of violence (Marsh 2018). According to the Geneva Declaration (2008, p. 2), armed violence refers to “the intentional use of illegitimate force (actual or threatened) with arms or explosives, against a person, group, community, or state that undermines people-centered security and/or sustainable development.” The negative economic, sociopolitical, and public health effects of armed violence became one of the main focus areas of the international community. For instance, Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 16.4 calls on governments to “significantly reduce illicit financial and arms flows” by 2030 (UN A/70.1, p. 25). Small arms and light...

Keywords

Arms Trade Violence 
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References

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Further Reading

  1. Dupuy, K., & Rustad, S. A. (2018). Trends in armed conflict, 1946–2017. Conflict Trends, 5. Oslo: PRIO. https://www.prio.org/utility/DownloadFile.ashx?id=1698&type=publicationfile.
  2. Rogers, D. (2009). Postinternationalism and small arms control: Theory, politics, security. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
  1. Geneva Declaration Secretariat (2008) Global Burden of Armed Violence. Geneva, Switzerland.Google Scholar
  2. Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (2018) Findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Seattle, WA: IHME Google Scholar
  3. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) (2015) Study on Firearms. ViennaGoogle Scholar
  4. Igarape Institute (2013) The Way of the Gun: Estimating Firearms Traffic Across the U.S.- Mexico Border. Edited by: Topher McDougal, David A. Shirk, Robert Muggah and John H. Patterson. Brazil.Google Scholar
  5. Seniora, J. & Poitevin, C. (2010) Managing land borders and the trafficking of Small Arms and Light Weapons. GRIP. Brussels.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)Corvinus University of Budapest (CUB)OsloNorway