Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

9-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

Political Science

Advisor

Mark Ungar

Committee Members

George J. Andreopoulos

Yan Sun

Subject Categories

Comparative Politics | International Relations | Political Science

Keywords

Global Small Arms Regime, United Nations, International Regimes, Haiti, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Due to the large number of global conflicts and a spike in small arms violence that followed the Cold War, a panel of experts were called into action by the United Nations in 1997 to craft a Small Arms Program of Action (PoA). This non-binding instrument witnessed the birth of the Global Small Arms Regime (2000-2015) to create an arms control regime to respond to the trade of small arms and light weapons (SALW) to reduce illicit arms available on the global market and respond to the massive number of conflict related fatalities and violations of human rights.

This Global SALW Regime is an evolutionary process to create a set of new arms trade rules and norms for states to enact within their own national laws, to control the global SALW conventional trade. The prospects for post conflict and peace stability increases in states where SALW are controlled following conflict when disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) programs (also referred to hereinafter as micro-disarmament programs) are implemented by multilateral strategic partners to assist the state during the post conflict reconstruction. There are signs that arms abatement programs are working, when illicit SALW flows are better controlled, violence declines and there is generally a reduction in homicide rates. The rules, policies, and norms created under the Global SALW Regime includes the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), the first legally binding instrument on the transfer of conventional arms created by the UN as a set of common standards. Only those states that have signed onto the ATT are bound to it.

To promote illicit SALW control, micro-disarmament programs, and human rights compliance with respect to transparent arms trade, this study constructs a three-part model of the Global SALW Regime. This post-conflict policy based implementation model consists of an “Elegant Basket of Norms'' that shows how a post conflict state that disarms and collects SALW will mitigate violence and diminish fatalities despite exogenous and endogenous variables, obstacles, and setbacks (such as natural disasters and pandemics) that can disrupt the entire DDR process making it difficult in collecting and controlling SALW. The country cases are Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka and Haiti, and each country has had very different results in controlling SALW during post conflict reconstruction and state building, despite obstacles, such as spikes in illicit SALW flows, earthquakes, tsunamis, and pandemics. This three-level model can facilitate better micro-disarmament and DDR budget planning and program implementation in post-conflict states. This study concludes with policy recommendations for the Global SALW Regime and suggestions for further research and civil action.

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