CIAO DATE: 08/04

Making New International Norms: The Small Arms Case

Abstract

This paper focuses on a significant puzzle in international security today: why did small arms control become prominent on the international agenda during the 1990s? And why did the international community attempt to regulate these weapons? This paper illustrates the emergence of small arms and light weapons on the international agenda and draws some parallels with the land mines case. Moreover, I outline how norm building processes is a fruitful research guide to examine these pressing questions of land mines and small arms proliferation management. The creation of international norms and the setting of widely agreed upon standards to control small arms and light weapons is central to the multilateral coordination of international responses to tackle the problems associated with their proliferation.

Millions of people worldwide live every day under the fear and threat of armed violence. There are few places left in the world where people can live unhindered by the dangers posed by armed violence. In conflict zones or in violent urban contexts, more than a half million people die every year, victims of gun violence; moreover, it is likely that there are between 15,000 and 20,000 new land mines casualties each year. While nuclear weapons were used once, small arms and light weapons are used everyday, everywhere, contributing to international insecurity. The first international conference to address the illicit arms trafficking convened in July 2001 under the auspices of the United Nations: Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All its Aspects, New York, 9-20 July 2001 (hereafter: UN 2001). This was an indication that the small arms question was a prominent topic on the international agenda.

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