tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/arms-49739/articles
Arms – The Conversation
2022-11-15T17:22:39Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/194311
2022-11-15T17:22:39Z
2022-11-15T17:22:39Z
What my undercover investigations at arms fairs reveal about how the west supports military dictatorships
<p>COP27 has some of the most <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/environment/2022/11/egypt-cop27-authoritarian-greenwashing-surveillance">authoritarian security</a> of any of the COP summits. Set in the walled resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, it is surrounded by 36km of concrete and razor wire, overseen by new surveillance technologies and a “security observatory”. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/31/egypt-cop27-showcase-charms-sharm-el-sheikh-protest-mall">Protesters are also restricted</a> to a <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/11/egypt-arrests-over-calls-for-protests-during-cop27-expose-reality-of-human-rights-crisis/">distant site in the desert</a>. Protest has been effectively prohibited in Egypt since the 2013 coup when the retired military general, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abdel-Fattah-al-Sisi">Abdel Fattah al-Sisi</a>, overthrew his country’s democratically elected Islamist President, Mohammed Morsi, amid mass protests against his rule. Donald Trump once referred to the Egyptian president as his “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-awaiting-egyptian-counterpart-at-summit-called-out-for-my-favorite-dictator-11568403645">favourite dictator</a>”.</p>
<p>Like <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/egypt/report-egypt/">Egypt</a>, Qatar, the host country for this year’s World Cup, also has a long history of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/oct/20/fifa-world-cup-human-rights-abuses-qatar-amnesty-international">human rights abuses</a>. Indeed, the decision to hold the World Cup in Qatar has been criticised by many, especially <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/26/uk-minister-criticised-over-call-for-gay-world-cup-fans-to-show-respect-in-qatar">LGBT+ groups</a> as homosexuality can be punishable by death.</p>
<p>Both <a href="https://caat.org.uk/news/uk-military-agreement-with-qatar-shows-flagrant-disregard-for-human-rights/">Qatar</a> and <a href="https://caat.org.uk/data/countries/egypt/">Egypt</a> are <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/country/qatar/freedom-world/2022">countries</a> that are <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/country/egypt/freedom-net/2022">classified</a> as “not free” by <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/explore-the-map?type=fotn&year=2022">Freedom House</a>, a US government-funded human rights group. And yet, despite civil liberties, including press freedom and freedom of assembly, being tightly restricted, over the past decade, both countries have received weapons licensed by the UK government.</p>
<p>Indeed, 2021 analysis from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/27/17bn-of-uk-arms-sold-to-rights-abusers">the Guardian</a> and <a href="https://caat.org.uk/">Campaign Against Arms Trade</a> (CAAT), a UK-based organisation working to end the international arms trade, found that 21 out of 30 countries on the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/human-rights-priority-countries-autumn-2020-ministerial-statement/human-rights-priority-countries-ministerial-statement-january-to-june-2020">UK government’s list of repressive regimes</a> had received UK military equipment. And that between 2011-20, the UK licensed £16.8 billion of arms to countries that have been criticised by Freedom House. The government did not respond to the Guardian’s investigation.</p>
<h2>Bombs, fighter jets and tanks</h2>
<p>Arms production is a vast global business. And many governments are implicated, hosting arms fairs, brokering international deals and issuing export licenses.
France, for example, is one of <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/egypt-france-arms-top-importer">Egypt’s largest suppliers</a> of weapons, exporting warships, fighter jets, armoured vehicles and <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/01/28/how-french-weapons-enable-egypts-abuses">surveillance systems</a> suitable for intercepting communications and controlling social movements. </p>
<p>Britain has also sold Egypt and Qatar <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-uk-approves-42m-spyware-sales-middle-east-regimes">surveillance equipment</a>, machine guns and <a href="https://caat.org.uk/data/countries/egypt/">combat vehicles</a>. </p>
<p>I have visited arms fairs for over ten years. I get through security by describing myself as a defence consultant, then draw and collect marketing material. The most recent one I went to, <a href="https://www.eurosatory.com/?lang=en">Eurosatory</a>, was held in June 2022 in Paris. It is one of the world’s largest arms fairs and an international gathering of politicians, dictators, civil servants and corporations. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495064/original/file-20221114-14-86ck0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495064/original/file-20221114-14-86ck0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495064/original/file-20221114-14-86ck0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495064/original/file-20221114-14-86ck0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495064/original/file-20221114-14-86ck0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495064/original/file-20221114-14-86ck0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495064/original/file-20221114-14-86ck0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A teargas rep straightens his tie.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Arms fairs may receive less press attention than COP meetings or the World Cup but they perhaps give a clearer indication of governments’ global priorities. </p>
<p>At Eurosatory, arms companies from around the world display missiles, bombs, fighter jets and tanks to an international clientele. Since the Arab spring, there has also been a section for crowd control euphemistically called “less lethal” weaponry. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494736/original/file-20221110-13-9n2juy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494736/original/file-20221110-13-9n2juy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494736/original/file-20221110-13-9n2juy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494736/original/file-20221110-13-9n2juy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494736/original/file-20221110-13-9n2juy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494736/original/file-20221110-13-9n2juy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494736/original/file-20221110-13-9n2juy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A hostess with teargas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mannequins tower over the visitors, wearing armour, digital helmets and gasmasks, aiming guns, batons, shields and grenades. Cabinets display teargas, rubber bullets and stun grenades in neat clinical rows. One cabinet has the curiously named “moral effect grenades”. There are also drones, armoured police cars, surveillance systems and listening technologies. Sales staff demonstrate products and offer wine.</p>
<h2>Batons, shields and grenades</h2>
<p>Like any trade show, arms fairs have complimentary gifts - pens, sweets and stress-balls, except here they are based on weapons. </p>
<p>This year, there were stress-balls in the shape of grenades, camouflage ducks, catalogues showing crowds running away from police spraying teargas, and alongside this, key fobs with metallic representations of people running. Trapped on the ring, metal glinting under spotlights, the running figures show how arms companies treat repression as a sales opportunity. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494728/original/file-20221110-22-1mf3u3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494728/original/file-20221110-22-1mf3u3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494728/original/file-20221110-22-1mf3u3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494728/original/file-20221110-22-1mf3u3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494728/original/file-20221110-22-1mf3u3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494728/original/file-20221110-22-1mf3u3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494728/original/file-20221110-22-1mf3u3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A mannequin in a mask.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The UK Defence and Security Exports Department has identified both Egypt and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/27/britain-targets-qatar-priority-market-arms-sales">Qatar</a> as “key markets” and the UK government regularly invites <a href="https://caat.org.uk/news/arms-fair-opens-today-in-london-docklands-with-official-delegations-from-repressive-warring-states/">both countries</a> to the London arms fair, <a href="https://www.dsei.co.uk/">DSEI</a> (Defence and Security Equipment International). </p>
<p>Instead of tightening arms export controls for countries with dire records on human rights and civil liberties the UK government plans to relax them. I visited DSEI in September 2021 and listened as the defence secretary Ben Wallace promised closer ties between the government, arms companies and their clients. </p>
<p>“We’re making it easier for you to get an export licence by unblocking the approval bottlenecks,” <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/defence-secretary-dsei-keynote-speech-2021">Wallace said</a>. He also promised, that “they will be underpinned by robust accountability and always put the needs of the customer front and centre”. </p>
<p>Both promises seem rash when customers include leaders like Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Indeed, there can be no global security while governments are in the thrall of an industry that uses repression as a source of profit. Or while they continue to sell arms to countries that imprison activists rather than listen to them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194311/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jill Gibbon receives funding from the ISRF.</span></em></p>
Razor wire, surveillance technologies and gated compounds – welcome to COP27.
Jill Gibbon, Senior Lecturer in Graphic Arts, Leeds Beckett University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/131711
2020-06-17T16:56:30Z
2020-06-17T16:56:30Z
Airbus: flying high on the wings of corruption
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342466/original/file-20200617-94078-17enfs0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C1497%2C997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cockpit of the Airbus A330-900.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.airbus.com/aircraft/passenger-aircraft/a330-family/a330-900.html">P. Pigeyre/Airbus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On January 31, 2020, the European aerospace manufacturer Airbus agreed to pay nearly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/business/airbus-corruption-settlement.html">3.7 billion euros in fines to settle bribery charges</a> stemming from a four-year investigation by French, British, and US authorities. The investigations found that for more than a decade the firm bribed officials in 16 countries through intermediaries to buy its aircraft and satellites. France will receive the largest settlement, 2.1 billion euros, while the UK will receive nearly 1 billion, and the United States more than 500 million.</p>
<p>The case shows that European authorities have finally decided to make credible justice decisions against firms that use bribery and other forms of corruption to maintain and develop their business. It is also a learning opportunity for anyone interested in white-collar crime, and a number of theories developed by criminology researchers allow us to better understand how Airbus was able to operate so long with such impunity.</p>
<h2>Globe-spanning corruption</h2>
<p>Headquarters in Netherlands, Airbus has key operations in France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. It’s one of the world’s largest manufacturers of commercial aircraft, helicopters and other high-tech products in the defence and space sectors. According to documents from the US Department of Justice, from 2008 to 2015 Airbus used its Strategy and Marketing Organization (SMO) branch to funnel <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/airbus-agrees-pay-over-39-billion-global-penalties-resolve-foreign-bribery-and-itar-case">millions of bribes to decision-makers and influencers to obtain business deals</a>. Countries involved included the United Arab Emirates, China, South Korea, Nepal, India, Taiwan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Japan, Turkey, Mexico, Thailand, Brazil, Kuwait, Colombia, South Korea, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Taiwan, Ghana and Mexico.</p>
<p>When categorising white-collar crimes, a key factor is the separation between those involving individuals or a few people, and corporate cases. Given the SMO’s role, the Airbus case was clearly one of an organisational crime. SMO was a significant business unit for Airbus, with around 150 employees and an initial annual budget of 300 million US dollars. The branch was created to compile and appraise applications from potential business partners for the purpose of <a href="https://www.sfo.gov.uk/download/airbus-se-deferred-prosecution-agreement-statement-of-facts/">compliance risk assessment</a>. As a corruption machine SMO operated from 2008 to 2015, and long-term fraud implies internal learning systems in the fraudulent firm, with former employees transmitting fraud techniques to new recruits. </p>
<p>Indeed, Donald Sutherland’s <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/differential-association-theory-4689191">theory of differential association</a> shows that certain crimes are not innate at all, but learned through contact with experienced criminals. The individuals involved in white-collar crimes are nominally respectable, or at least respected, making the crimes themselves ones that are committed by elites. That was the case with the Airbus case: the documents involve behaviour by senior executives, government and foreign officials, a board of directors, businessmen, an international-compliance officer and a general counsel.</p>
<p>A particularity of economic crime is its technical difficulty. Criminals in organisations are experts in developing systems to conceal their frauds. The techniques used by SMO could be easily included in a manual for how to pay bribes: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Acquisition of a company belonging to an airlines executive at inflated price.</p></li>
<li><p>Acquisition of luxury estate properties for the use of an influential individual.</p></li>
<li><p>Purchase by a subsidiary based in a foreign country of shares in an entity belonging to the son of a commercial intermediary through money transferred via another country.</p></li>
<li><p>Sponsoring a sport team belonging to an airline executive.</p></li>
<li><p>Recruitment of the spouse of a key executive as a business partner using a straw company (despite the fact that the spouse had no relevant expertise).</p></li>
</ul>
<p>To cite a specific example, Chinese officials were invited to a business trip to Hawaii in 2013 with a 30-minute daily briefing about business information followed by “more important” activities such as <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1241491/download">golf, scuba diving, horseback riding, and surfing lessons</a>.</p>
<h2>SMO: the corruption machine</h2>
<p>In addition, the criminologist <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/221475">Donald Cressey</a> explained the emergence of of organisational crime by the existence of an opportunity. A typical opportunity was further described by <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2094589?seq=1">Cohen and Felton</a> as the insufficient surveillance system. Thus, SMO produced fake documents and invented stories to fit international compliance requirements. SMO executives developed different techniques to look like following the best due-diligence practices without actually doing them. In a Russian case, SMO instructed an external company to conduct due diligence to evaluate the quality of a potential business partner, which in fact was in charge of paying approximately 9 million euros of bribes. To prepare the audit, the SMO International manager <a href="https://www.agence-francaise-anticorruption.gouv.fr/files/files/CJIP%20AIRBUS_English%20version.pdf">wrote to the commercial intermediary in charge of paying bribes</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Compliance is buying the story, we now only need to ‘justify’ your past experience”, to which the commercial intermediary replied: “Sir, Yes Sir! […] I am going to try to find something to write for you ;-)”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The external audit raised red flags about the Russian business partner: no registered office, no financial account, no ability to provide the services offered to SMO. Still, a contract was signed and money transferred.</p>
<p>In his <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Division-of-Labor-in-Society/Emile-Durkheim/9781439118245">“anomie” theory</a>, French sociologist Emile Durkheim explained the importance of punishment in fixing norms of behaviour for a society. The fines Airbus paid are a “stick” that will teach the aircraft manufacturer that compliance must be respected, and they will follow now the best compliance practices. </p>
<p>In a press release, Guillaume Faury, chief executive officer of Airbus, <a href="https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/press-releases/en/2020/01/airbus-reaches-agreements-with-french-uk-and-us-authorities.html">stated</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The agreements approved… with the French, UK, and US authorities represent a very important milestone for us, allowing Airbus to move forward and further grow in a sustainable and responsible way. The lessons learned enable Airbus to position itself as the trusted and reliable partner we want to be.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>At the same time, Durkheim explained that a penalty is particularly important for all members of a society, who become aware of what is admissible or not. In the case of the competitors of Airbus, they too are aware that engaging in corrupt practices can have extremely painful consequences.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131711/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bertrand Venard, professor at Audencia (France) and the University of Oxford (UK) is conducting several research projects about frauds such as cybersecurity and corruption. He is doing a major research project about cybersecurity behaviour, funded by the European Union (Project Number : 792137). He received funding from Anti-Corruption Commission of Bhutan. Indeed, he directed two major research projects to fight corruption in the mining industry and human resource management in the civil services of Bhutan. </span></em></p>
In January Airbus agreed to pay nearly 4 billions euros to settle bribery charges. Theories developed by criminology researchers explain how the firm was able to operate so long with such impunity.
Bertrand Venard, Professor, Audencia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/126967
2019-11-13T17:51:48Z
2019-11-13T17:51:48Z
Firearm-makers may finally decide it’s in their interest to help reduce gun violence after Sandy Hook ruling
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301585/original/file-20191113-77326-1m0rv9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The popularity of semiautomatic rifles increases the risk that mass shootings result in multiple deaths. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Mass-Shootings-Gun-Laws/e4b7996376f9470eb184447755726777/428/0">AP Photo/Jae C. Hong</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mass shootings have become a <a href="https://qz.com/1681373/multiple-mass-shootings-in-24-hours-is-nothing-new-in-the-us/">routine occurrence</a> in America. </p>
<p>Gun-makers have long refused to take responsibility for their role in this epidemic. That may be about to change. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/11/12/778487920/supreme-court-allows-sandy-hook-families-case-against-remington-to-proceed">U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 12 refused to block</a> a lawsuit filed by the families of the Sandy Hook Elementary mass shooting victims, clearing the way for the litigation to proceed. Remington Arms, which manufactured and sold the semiautomatic rifle used in the attack, had hoped the <a href="https://lawcenter.giffords.org/gun-laws/policy-areas/other-laws-policies/gun-industry-immunity/">broad immunity the industry has enjoyed for years</a> would shield it from any liability. </p>
<p>The prospect of more claims from victims of mass shootings puts new pressure on the gun industry to reconsider the way it does business. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yQUI6yEAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">My research over the past 20 years</a> on lawsuits against the gun industry examines how the threat of civil liability has the potential to promote safer gun designs, encourage more responsible marketing practice and reduce the risk of illegal retail sales. </p>
<h2>The end of immunity</h2>
<p>A 2006 law called the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/chapter-105">Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act</a> grants gun manufacturers broad immunity from civil lawsuits that arise out of the criminal misuse of a weapon.</p>
<p>However, this immunity does not apply where a manufacturer “knowingly violated a state or federal statute applicable to the sale or marketing” of a firearm.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.jud.ct.gov/external/supapp/Cases/AROcr/CR331/331CR865.pdf">Sandy Hook families allege</a> that Remington, by marketing certain guns to civilians, engaged in “unethical” business methods in violation of the <a href="https://portal.ct.gov/DCP/Trade-Practices-Division/About-the-Connecticut-Unfair-Trade-Practices-Act-CUTPA">Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act</a>. Specifically, they argued Remington “marketed, advertised and promoted the Bushmaster XM15-E2S for civilians to use to carry out offensive, military-style combat missions against their perceived enemies.” </p>
<p>Remington asked the court to throw out the lawsuit based on the federal immunity statute, but the Connecticut Supreme Court <a href="https://www.jud.ct.gov/external/supapp/Cases/AROcr/CR331/331CR865.pdf">held that a violation of the state’s unfair trade practices law qualifies</a> as an exception to the industry’s liability shield. </p>
<p>Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/111219zor_db8e.pdf">refused to hear</a> Remington’s appeal, the case will move into discovery and, potentially, trial in a Connecticut state court.</p>
<p>Since <a href="https://www.nclc.org/images/pdf/udap/analysis-state-summaries.pdf">many states</a> have unfair trade practices laws like Connecticut’s, gun violence victims are likely to bring similar claims elsewhere, effectively ending the gun industry’s federal immunity from civil lawsuits.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301588/original/file-20191113-77291-13066b2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301588/original/file-20191113-77291-13066b2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301588/original/file-20191113-77291-13066b2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301588/original/file-20191113-77291-13066b2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301588/original/file-20191113-77291-13066b2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301588/original/file-20191113-77291-13066b2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301588/original/file-20191113-77291-13066b2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The father of one of the children killed at Sandy Hook speaks outside the Connecticut Supreme Court.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Newtown-Shooting-Gun-Maker/75bd46a0671942beb2c560065442dbe8/2/0">AP Photo/Dave Collins</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Reducing gun violence</h2>
<p>In other industries, the threat of civil liability has encouraged manufacturers to take steps in design, marketing and retail to reduce the risk of injuries associated with their products. Lawsuits have prompted automakers to develop <a href="https://www.robertabelllaw.com/library/Driven_to_Safety__How_Litigation_Spurred_Auto_Safety_Innovations.pdf">safer car designs</a>, vaping companies to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/10/17/771095245/vaping-giant-juul-settles-lawsuit-will-not-market-to-teens-and-children">end marketing aimed at teens</a> and opioid manufacturers to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/as-lawyers-zero-in-on-drug-companies-a-reckoning-may-be-coming/2019/07/17/c634a1bc-a89a-11e9-86dd-d7f0e60391e9_story.html">take responsibility for oversupplying</a> pills to irresponsible retailers. </p>
<p>Similarly, exposing gun manufacturers to civil liability is likely to encourage them to consider reducing the <a href="https://mikethegunguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/measuring-gun-lethality.pdf">lethality</a> of their civilian weapons. The popularity of semiautomatic firearms <a href="https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/9/2/151">increases the risk</a> that gun violence incidents will cause multiple gunshot wounds to large numbers of victims. Companies may wish to limit their liability exposure by reducing the firepower of their products.</p>
<p>Additionally, companies may wish to reconsider <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ar-rifles-marketing-tactics-scrutiny-mass-shootings/">marketing campaigns</a> that extol the combat characteristics of weapons they sell on the civilian market. Such campaigns are likely to give rise to more lawsuits alleging that such promotional tactics increase the risk that their guns will be the weapon of choice for mass shooters.</p>
<p>Finally, lawsuits may encourage gun companies to work harder to teach retailers how to spot and prevent illegal straw purchases, in which a person buys a gun for someone else who is legally prohibited from purchasing it. The industry’s trade association – the National Shooting Sports Council – has long had a <a href="http://www.dontlie.org/">training and certification program</a> for retailers to reduce the risk of illegal straw purchases. Beefing up that effort is another way to reduce the industry’s liability exposure.</p>
<p>None of these actions would weaken the Second Amendment or undermine the commercial viability of the gun industry.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301592/original/file-20191113-77310-1mwpp2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301592/original/file-20191113-77310-1mwpp2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301592/original/file-20191113-77310-1mwpp2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301592/original/file-20191113-77310-1mwpp2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301592/original/file-20191113-77310-1mwpp2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301592/original/file-20191113-77310-1mwpp2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301592/original/file-20191113-77310-1mwpp2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Sandy Hook mom marches over the Brooklyn Bridge during a rally to end gun violence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Gun-Control-Rally/1f94c15e10504041bbe49ac58c7069c8/445/0">AP Photo/Mary Altaffer</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Only the beginning</h2>
<p>Regardless of whether the Sandy Hook families ultimately prevail, the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to hear an appeal in the case appears to have blown a giant hole in the gun industry’s immunity from civil litigation.</p>
<p>However, this may not be the court’s last word on the subject. The justices might have another opportunity to review the case if the Sandy Hook plaintiffs win and the case works its way back up to the high court. The Supreme Court could then decide that the exception to federal immunity applies more narrowly. </p>
<p>Moreover, there is no guarantee that other state courts will adopt the Connecticut Supreme Court’s interpretation of the immunity exception. Federal courts in <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca2/05-6942/05-6942-cv_opn-2011-03-27.html">New York</a> and <a href="https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2009/05/11/06-56872.pdf">California</a> have rejected similar lawsuits. Also, unfair trade practices laws in other states frequently limit lawsuits to product consumers, excluding claims by others injured by the products.</p>
<p>In addition, gun violence victims face other challenges in winning their claims. They must convince judges and juries that routine industry marketing strategies constitute unfair trade practices and prove that those practices played a role in enabling criminal attacks. Prior to passage of federal immunity, <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/gun_litigation-intro.htm">no plaintiff ever won</a> a lawsuit against a gun manufacturer for an injury arising out of criminal misuse of a weapon.</p>
<p>Finally, litigation is not a panacea. Stemming the epidemic of gun violence in the U.S. will require a concerted effort by industry, government and organized citizen groups across the political spectrum. </p>
<p>Lawsuits can help jump-start this process, but they are only the beginning.</p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=expertise">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126967/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy D. Lytton has provided expert consulting services to law firms representing gun violence victims. </span></em></p>
The Supreme Court’s refusal to block the Sandy Hook lawsuit may lead to a flood of litigation, which ultimately may compel the gun industry to change the way it designs, markets and sells firearms.
Timothy D. Lytton, Distinguished University Professor & Professor of Law, Georgia State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/118698
2019-06-20T19:02:02Z
2019-06-20T19:02:02Z
Should we tax arms manufacturers to finance refugee resettlement?
<p>Today <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html">68.5 million people</a> are forcefully displaced worldwide. In 2018 alone, this number increased by 16.2 million: 11.8 million displaced within their national borders and 4.4 million seeking asylum outside. We are going through an unprecedented refugee crisis.</p>
<p>Wars in <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/16979186">Syria</a>, <a href="https://www.cfr.org/interactive/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/war-yemen">Yemen</a>, <a href="https://www.cfr.org/interactive/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/civil-war-south-sudan">South Sudan</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/magazine/afghan-war-casualty-report-may-24-30.html">Afghanistan</a> have been the most significant contributors to the surge in the number of both internally displaced and asylum seekers.</p>
<p>These conflicts have led to an unprecedented level of destruction, of whole cities and communities, due in part to the increased volume and sophistication of weapons available to all warring parties. Technologies such as remotely activated explosives, drones, mines and projectile launchers are now available not only to national armies but also to militias.</p>
<p>An overall increase of 87% in arms purchases in the Middle East in the last three years, compared to the preceding one, increases the chances of further tension and mass destruction in the region. Countries such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Turkey and Qatar have been <a href="https://www.sipri.org/publications/2019/sipri-fact-sheets/trends-international-arms-transfers-2018">stockpiling a vast arsenal of weapons</a>. There is a similar arms build-up in Asia led by China, India and Japan, but also Australia, which has massively increased its arms purchases <a href="https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/2019-03/fs_1903_at_2018.pdf">in the past three years</a>.</p>
<p>Drawing upon tax schemes developed for tobacco and climate change, I propose a transnational tax scheme levied on all international weapons sales, the “destruction tax”, that would finance a “reconstruction fund”. Such a scheme would put a downward pressure on international arms sales, and also can make funds available for refugee resettlement and post-war reconstruction.</p>
<h2>Arms’ business: a highly skewed distribution of costs and benefits</h2>
<p>Civilians and the environment withstand the worst of the destructive forces in military conflicts. Meanwhile, the warring parties absorb very little of this cost. Similarly, the arms and military companies – whose sales totalled <a href="https://www.sipri.org/publications/2019/sipri-fact-sheets/trends-international-arms-transfers-2018">398.2 billion US dollars</a> in 2017 – are key beneficiaries from warfare. But they play no role in addressing the social and environmental costs from the use of their products.</p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/279923192" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p> <br></p>
<p>The companies, mostly from the United States, Russia, Germany, France, China and the UK, are at the forefront of the global arms sales, which has been <a href="https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/2019-03/fs_1903_at_2018.pdf">growing steadily</a>.</p>
<h2>Arms as the new cigarettes?</h2>
<p>The economics and social effects of arms have a lot in common with cigarettes and other products with destructive effects.</p>
<p>During the past few years we have made significant progress in using fiscal solutions to decrease the consumption of dangerous products and to cover the social cost of their use. The idea of such tax schemes was first introduced by the British economist Alain Pigou in 1920s and it is hence called the Pigouvian tax. Such a tax would aim to make markets absorb the cost of the “negative externalities” that products cause the society and environment. Since, this proposal has led to <a href="https://www.economist.com/economics-brief/2017/08/19/pigouvian-taxes">extensive academic debates and policy experimentations</a>.</p>
<p>Increased cigarette taxes throughout the Western world have decreased use and also made it possible to cover partly the public health costs of smoking. Such taxes became common in 1990s, with rates around 20% of the sales price, and by 2018, they have increased to around <a href="https://www.who.int/tobacco/global_report/2017/technical_note_III.pdf">80% of the sales price in many OECD countries</a>.</p>
<p>There are similar initiatives for integrating the environmental cost of products’ use in their cost structure and pricing. A good example is the inclusion of carbon emissions and pollution in the cost structure of fuel, which governments ranging from China, Singapore and Japan to South Africa, Canada, the European Union and several US states <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/publication/44223">have experimented with</a>.</p>
<h2>The “destruction tax”</h2>
<p>The “destruction tax” is essentially a proposal to introduce a transnational tax on arms sales to deal with some of the destructive effects of warfare. So, it has similarities with the Pigouvian tax. </p>
<p>However, obviously for weapons, the idea of measuring the “externalities” seems impossible and absurd. The loss of life, disabilities, damage to communities, cultures, and the environment, and forced displacement of populations cannot be measured or remediated through any intervention.</p>
<p>The destruction tax only has the limited aim of attributing responsibility to arms manufacturers, to start playing a role in assisting those affected by their products. As with tobacco taxation schemes, such a tax would be part of (and a trigger for) a broader set of accountability and regulatory schemes/pressures and would not be a replacement for them. Nor would it exonerate companies from their responsibility for the proliferation of military conflicts & warfare and the resulting destruction.</p>
<p>A hypothetical “destruction tax” of 10% on international arms transactions would yield annually a maximum of around 40 billion US dollars in revenue (depending on where and how the scheme is executed). The jurisdictional power and territory of the body that will manage the tax scheme will be a major defining factor. For example, a UN-based scheme can cover a much larger portion of the global arms sales compared to one organised by the European Union, but it would have less enforcement power. The funds from such a tax scheme would then be transferred to a transnational “reconstruction fund” to finance post-war reconstruction.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279209/original/file-20190612-32356-1jdtk3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279209/original/file-20190612-32356-1jdtk3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279209/original/file-20190612-32356-1jdtk3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279209/original/file-20190612-32356-1jdtk3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279209/original/file-20190612-32356-1jdtk3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279209/original/file-20190612-32356-1jdtk3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279209/original/file-20190612-32356-1jdtk3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 10% tax on arms’ transaction. A way to cover the wars’ destructive effects?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">dxl/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The funds from such a transnational tax can provide a lifeline to a vast number of individuals and communities affected by war. Individuals affected by war can submit applications to the “reconstruction fund” so that money can be disbursed to help them with the reconstruction of their habitat, environmental remediation and/or resettlement.</p>
<p>The level of such as a tax, whether it is a flat rate or a progressive one proportionate to the destructive effects of weapons, and how it would be disbursed and to whom, are issues that need to be debated and decided through a political process. Similarly, it would need to be debated whether such a tax would be applied only to the final products or also to the arms production supply chain. The benefits of such an initiative that I detail below would bring more political appetite to increase the tax rate afterwards and to implement it in other arenas and jurisdictions (as has been the case with tobacco, alcohol and environmental emissions).</p>
<h2>Four reasons to welcome the “destruction tax”</h2>
<p>A “destruction tax” would have four crucial benefits:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>A global arms sales decrease</strong>. As with cigarettes, the price increase resulting from such a tax can have an effect on the demand for arms, from all types of buyers ranging from governments to private security firms and militias. This can be one possible factor to help slow down the spiral of arms stockpiling, even though – obviously – it is not sufficient and effective as a sole measure. The resulting price increase would affect demand not only from the parties to the international transactions but it would flow through to the local resellers and smuggling & distribution networks, all the way down to the warring parties.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Re-balancing the distribution of costs of warfare</strong>. Currently the cost and benefits of war are unfairly distributed. Exporters such as the US, Europe and Russia yield the economic benefits of arms sales. The buyers or the warring parties on battlegrounds deploy the military technologies to attempt to get political and economic benefits through use of the arms, while the local populations, mostly in the Middle East and Africa, absorb the bulk of the costs. Such a scheme will rebalance the distribution of costs and benefits along the chain. It can transfer part or all of the cost of destruction back to the sellers and the buyers while partly covering the costs to the local populations.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Helps restore refugees’ dignity</strong>. Currently, innocent civilian refugees affected by war have to rely on charity and generosity of the receiving countries, international organisations and NGOs. This puts them in a passive and humiliating position and deprives them of choice. However, such a destruction tax would change the discourse about refugees from helpless receivers of charity to those rightfully claiming funds to cover their war related losses. The money financed through such a tax can provide them more choice in their life trajectories, and also the possibility to recover more quickly from their war traumas. Of course, the human aspects of war traumas and losses cannot be addressed through any such financial incentive.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>A different attitude of receiving countries toward refugees</strong>. Currently refugees are frequently <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/12/no-mr-salvini-migrants-and-refugees-are-not-a-burden-a-photo-essay">framed as a burden and a cost</a> by many (Western) country politicians and media. Considering that the funds from the reconstruction fund can help cover part or all of their immediate resettlement expenses, it can motivate the receiving countries to be more receptive to refugees. This can also help tame the increasingly polarising and dehumanising discourses about refugees and their effects in the receiving countries.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279323/original/file-20190613-32356-ys9iu5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279323/original/file-20190613-32356-ys9iu5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279323/original/file-20190613-32356-ys9iu5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279323/original/file-20190613-32356-ys9iu5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279323/original/file-20190613-32356-ys9iu5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279323/original/file-20190613-32356-ys9iu5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279323/original/file-20190613-32356-ys9iu5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Somali refugee stands inside a tent with her baby in Dollo Ado, Ethiopia. Fleeing drought and famine in their home country, thousands of Somalis have taken up residence across the border in Dollo Ado where a complex of camps is assisted by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/6096782449/in/photolist-ahKB1M-7PEbEg-87iDuy-9sV6cL-86qe33-9ttHq5-fGC61-87iDxw-4Li8FF-7PEawP-86r5r3-7FCeMZ-9sVaej-87iDes-4Q1WY3-7FG9J5-9sS4rn-9sV5TC-8D5CbF-4E1Pdw-7FCeQD-86nU7P-87iDfq-87iDtA-87frDe-o56VxK-WyvDhy-9sS9Sr-86nLtM-87frsx-7FGaej-8zsRZd-4RzC2V-8vwTuF-4kTKbr-aiA3ft-4RDMEw-amzq6M-a7gwzE-U7sJv-6VmFjq-akancs-nvBrqh-abQ5Vy-eYLw87-a4aLzY-nKQ6Gi-o7QadM-9sEifr-jrdAZ7">Eskinder Debebe/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Is it feasible?</h2>
<p>Considering the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/22/business/economy/military-industrial-complex.html">deep ties</a> of the US administration and the legislative bodies with the country’s military industry, such option seems far-fetched at present. Similarly, governments of European countries such as France and the UK have been <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20160823-arms-trade-france-yemen-saudi-arabia-att-treaty-human-rights">mostly unconditionally supportive</a> of their respective military firms and their international dealings. However, other European countries less involved in the arms markets who are dealing with the brunt of the costs of the refugee crisis in Europe such as Greece but also many Eastern European countries should be more supportive of such a tax.</p>
<p>Considering the increased number of progressive voices both in the European Union in the form of <a href="https://www.gruene-bundestag.de/internationale-politik/humanitaere-katastrophe-lindern.html">green parties</a>, and US legislative bodies – the highly active and vocal <a href="https://cpc-grijalva.house.gov/caucus-members/">Congressional Progressive Caucus</a> is a good example – there is a political momentum to start the debate and to produce detailed proposals for such a transnational tax. This would prepare the grounds and help build momentum for its eventual enactment.</p>
<p>In the longer term, countries neighbouring major wars and conflicts such as Turkey, Pakistan, Lebanon, Uganda, Iran and Jordan – that have been hosting <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html">about 85% of refugees</a> from wars in Syria, Palestine, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Iraq, Libya and Somalia over the past several decades – can mobilise to initiate such debates and to trigger action at the United Nations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118698/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Afshin Mehrpouya ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>
Wars play a central role in increasing numbers of refugees worldwide. Is it time to think about a “destruction tax”?
Afshin Mehrpouya, Associate Professor, HEC Paris Business School
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/95473
2018-05-10T15:21:41Z
2018-05-10T15:21:41Z
I go undercover into arms fairs – and secretly draw caricatures of the ‘hell’ I find there
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218081/original/file-20180508-34015-wl9r39.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=202%2C155%2C2946%2C2142&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Jill Gibbon</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The arms multinational BAE Systems is in the final stages of a deal to sell <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-saudi-bae-systems/britain-to-finalize-typhoon-plane-order-talks-with-saudi-idUSKCN1GL26D">48 Typhoon fighter jets</a> to Saudi Arabia, despite mounting evidence of war crimes in Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen. International humanitarian law prohibits attacks against civilians but the Saudi-led coalition has bombed Yemeni schools, markets and hospitals, <a href="http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/69215/">killing more than 10,000 people</a> including children, while survivors face disease and starvation with the collapse of infrastructure. </p>
<p>Fragments of bombs made in <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.uk/exposed-british-made-bombs-used-civilian-targets-yemen">Britain</a> and <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/09/yemen-evidence-indicates-us-made-bomb-was-used-in-attack-on-msf-hospital/">the US</a> have been found in the debris of some of these attacks, yet both countries <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-middle-east-35898999/uk-made-bomb-destroyed-yemen-factory">continue to sell arms</a> to the Saudi regime.</p>
<p>Such deals take place in arms fairs, away from the public eye. I have drawn undercover in fairs in Europe and the Middle East for the past ten years, in an attempt to understand how international arms sales are normalised and legitimised. Access is restricted, but I get in by dressing up as a security consultant with a suit, heels, fake pearls, and a sham company. My performance is a metaphor for the charade of respectability in the industry.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218078/original/file-20180508-34027-1mmglkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218078/original/file-20180508-34027-1mmglkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218078/original/file-20180508-34027-1mmglkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218078/original/file-20180508-34027-1mmglkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218078/original/file-20180508-34027-1mmglkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218078/original/file-20180508-34027-1mmglkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218078/original/file-20180508-34027-1mmglkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A sales rep.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Jill Gibbon</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Arms fairs emerged from the globalisation of the military industry in the late 1990s. At the end of the Cold War, defence budgets were cut. There was a brief opportunity to convert military production facilities into civil areas such as medical equipment, transport and renewable energy; instead, arms companies merged into multinationals, expanded into security, and focused on a global market. Arms fairs were set up to provide venues for these deals. </p>
<p>The largest, DSEI (the Defence Security Exhibition International) takes place every two years in London, with similar fairs in Paris, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi. Here, weapons are displayed to an international clientele including countries at war, unstable states and repressive regimes. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.caat.org.uk/issues/arms-fairs/dsei/delegations">DSEI welcomes</a> 75% of the countries that the UK Foreign Office <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/human-rights-and-democracy-report-2015/human-rights-and-democracy-report-2015">has listed</a> as “Human Rights Priorities”, where “the worst, or greatest number of, human rights violations take place”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218084/original/file-20180508-34021-1duho8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218084/original/file-20180508-34021-1duho8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218084/original/file-20180508-34021-1duho8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218084/original/file-20180508-34021-1duho8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218084/original/file-20180508-34021-1duho8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218084/original/file-20180508-34021-1duho8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218084/original/file-20180508-34021-1duho8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A tank salesman.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Jill Gibbon</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Inside a fair, missiles, bombs and bullets are arranged under spotlights; guns are available to try out for weight and size, and to aim at imaginary targets; mannequins pose in camouflage offering private military services and tear gas; tanks are open for viewing. “Lethality” is a sales slogan. Manufacturers boast of the precision of their products, as if war could be refined through science. </p>
<p>As with most advertising, such claims turn out to be exaggerated when the weapons are actually used. Bombing is <a href="http://www.comw.org/pda/0402rm9.html">inevitably inaccurate</a>, compromised by an inbuilt margin of error, malfunctions, mistaken intelligence and the weather. The difference between a combatant and civilian is also increasingly unclear, as Yemen shows. Yet such claims make war more likely.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218083/original/file-20180508-34024-1ivlsq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218083/original/file-20180508-34024-1ivlsq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218083/original/file-20180508-34024-1ivlsq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218083/original/file-20180508-34024-1ivlsq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218083/original/file-20180508-34024-1ivlsq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218083/original/file-20180508-34024-1ivlsq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218083/original/file-20180508-34024-1ivlsq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">String quartet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Jill Gibbon</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many stalls hand out gifts as an alternative to business cards – stress-balls in the shape of bombs, grenades and tanks, branded sweets and pens. A gas mask manufacturer has condoms with the slogan, “The ultimate protection”. Waiting staff hover with trays of wine, beer and grapes, while a string quartet plays Handel and Mozart.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218087/original/file-20180508-34027-aekk7h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218087/original/file-20180508-34027-aekk7h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218087/original/file-20180508-34027-aekk7h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218087/original/file-20180508-34027-aekk7h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218087/original/file-20180508-34027-aekk7h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218087/original/file-20180508-34027-aekk7h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218087/original/file-20180508-34027-aekk7h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Grenade stress relief.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Jill Gibbon</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are also promotions. The BAE subsidiary Bofors has a live satellite link to its weapons testing facility in Sweden where a military vehicle explodes in a cloud of light and metal. Alongside the video screens, bowls are filled with toffees in wrappers saying, “Welcome to hell”. Brochures explain that the Bofors test centre is “Hell for your product, heaven for your investment”. The impact on people of the weapons that pass through the test centre is oddly missing. In an arms fair, missiles are forever products.</p>
<p>How to draw this? My drawings veer between caricature and observational methods. Mainly, I focus on the etiquette that gives the industry an appearance of respectability – the handshakes, pinstriped suits, hospitality, and violins. I also draw cracks in the façade – a lewd advance, a rep slumped in a chair with his head in his hands, the continual, desperate drinking. Brecht used the Latin word <em>gestus</em> to <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Brecht_On_Theatre.html?id=W1iCBAAAQBAJ&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y">describe</a> an attitude that expresses a social role or condition. In his plays, gestures are frozen so they seem strange. Perhaps drawing can be used in a similar way.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218085/original/file-20180508-34018-18hvzwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218085/original/file-20180508-34018-18hvzwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218085/original/file-20180508-34018-18hvzwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218085/original/file-20180508-34018-18hvzwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218085/original/file-20180508-34018-18hvzwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218085/original/file-20180508-34018-18hvzwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218085/original/file-20180508-34018-18hvzwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Drinking.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Jill Gibbon</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Or, perhaps the gifts are sufficient in themselves to reveal the strange amorality of an industry that uses war as a sales opportunity. The BAE Bofors toffees might be intended to convey the impact of a test centre on weapons with the slogan “Welcome to hell” – but sweets are usually meant for children.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95473/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jill Gibbon receives funding from the Independent Social Research Foundation. </span></em></p>
There’s a disturbing disconnect between the polite etiquette of arms fairs and the hell that their products create.
Jill Gibbon, Senior Lecturer in Graphic Arts, Leeds Beckett University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/95089
2018-05-04T09:00:32Z
2018-05-04T09:00:32Z
How the arms trade is used to secure access to oil
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217568/original/file-20180503-182160-1qd4wz8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/oil-refinery-twilight-106008914?src=2l8_JMeiJQkSsJGYFYHzZA-1-2">shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>UK arms exports to Saudi Arabia increased by 175% <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/uk-accused-of-using-secretive-deals-to-sell-arms-to-saudi-arabia-11278466">in the first nine months of 2017</a> according to an investigation by the Campaign Against Arms Trade. Similarly, France and the US are <a href="https://www.sipri.org/publications/2018/sipri-fact-sheets/trends-international-arms-transfers-2017">major exporters of arms to the oil-rich Gulf state</a> – in 2017 alone, they were worth around US$2.6 billion.</p>
<p>Selling weapons is a lucrative business. As well as the money to be made, the arms trade is also a barometer of the quality of relationships between states and it creates an interdependence that gives current and future recipient governments incentives to cooperate with arms suppliers. </p>
<p>Oil dependency is another reason. Sometimes this idea <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-crude-conspiracies-right-research-shows-nations-really-do-go-to-war-over-oil-36846">is disregarded as a conspiracy theory</a>, but colleagues Claudio Deiana, Roberto Nisticò and I <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jleo/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/jleo/ewy007/4943983?redirectedFrom=fulltext">recently researched</a> the extent to which oil-dependent countries transfer arms to oil-rich countries. It turns out it’s a lot. </p>
<p>The international transfer of weapons is one of the most dynamic and lucrative sectors of international trade. By one estimate, from the <a href="https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2017/increase-arms-transfers-driven-demand-middle-east-and-asia-says-sipri">Stockholm International Peace Research Institute</a>, global transfers of major weapons have grown continuously since 2004 and between 2012 and 2016 reached its highest volume for any five-year period since the end of the Cold War. The value of the global arms trade in 2015 was at least <a href="https://www.sipri.org/databases/financial-value-global-arms-trade">US$91.3 billion</a>, roughly equal to the GDP of Ukraine, or half of Greece’s GDP.</p>
<p>Since no country is self-sufficient in arms production – even the US – most of the countries in the world import weapons. This is shown in the image below, which displays the volume of arms imports of major conventional weapons between 2012 and 2016. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217254/original/file-20180502-153908-spzk1j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217254/original/file-20180502-153908-spzk1j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217254/original/file-20180502-153908-spzk1j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217254/original/file-20180502-153908-spzk1j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217254/original/file-20180502-153908-spzk1j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217254/original/file-20180502-153908-spzk1j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217254/original/file-20180502-153908-spzk1j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217254/original/file-20180502-153908-spzk1j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.sipri.org/databases/armstransfers/background">Data: SIPRI</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the same time, the export of arms is a key part of national policy – and weapons are often given only to close allies. It is not unusual to observe arms transferred for free to allies, under the umbrella of military aid, such as <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/1505488/colombian-president-visits-thanks-southcom-for-its-support/">US military support to Colombia</a> to fight drug cartels and insurgent groups. Equally, the absence of trade in arms between two countries can reflect a desire to safeguard national security. For example, if there are fears that the importing nation can become a future threat.</p>
<h2>The oil connection</h2>
<p>To test the idea that energy dependence leads to a higher volume of arms transfers between countries, we assembled a large dataset with information on oil wealth (such as production, reserves and recent discoveries) and oil trade data, to measure energy interdependence and the potential damage of regional instabilities to oil supplies. </p>
<p>We found the existence of a “local oil dependence”, which indicates that the amount of arms imported has a direct relationship with the amount of oil exported to the arms supplier. Speculatively, arms export to a specific country is affected by the degree of dependence on its supply of oil. The larger the amount of oil that country A imports from country B, the larger will be the volume of arms that country A will transfer to country B. </p>
<p>But we did not only find the existence of a direct oil-for-weapons relationship. Our results also reveal the presence of a “global oil dependence”. The more a country depends on oil imports, the higher the incentives are to export weapons to oil-rich economies, even in the absence of a direct bilateral oil-for-weapons exchange. The idea is that by providing weapons, the oil-dependent country seeks to contain the risk of instabilities in an oil-rich country. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217565/original/file-20180503-153888-qttda9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217565/original/file-20180503-153888-qttda9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217565/original/file-20180503-153888-qttda9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217565/original/file-20180503-153888-qttda9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217565/original/file-20180503-153888-qttda9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217565/original/file-20180503-153888-qttda9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217565/original/file-20180503-153888-qttda9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Got to keep that oil flowing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pipeline-bridge-117314188?src=TX3HhDTpCKJCVjnfmvqk3g-1-6">shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The oil-rich country does not necessarily need to be the oil-dependent’s direct supplier, however, because disruptions in the production of oil are likely to affect oil prices worldwide. Violent events such as civil wars or terrorist incidents <a href="https://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/International/Geopolitical-Risk-Is-On-The-Rise-In-Oil-Markets.html">are often accompanied by surging oil prices</a>, or more general insecurity in the supply of oil. This was the case in many recent wars, such as the Gulf War and the Iraq War, the political unrest in Venezuela in 2003, and the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a207c98e-b20d-11e7-a398-73d59db9e399">recent Iraq-Kurdistan conflict</a>.</p>
<p>So it does not matter how much oil the UK directly imports from Saudi Arabia for it to want the country to remain stable, which in turn keeps oil prices stable. In line with this, we found that a country with a recent discovery of new oil fields will increase its import of weapons from oil-dependent economies by 56%.</p>
<p>Our results point consistently toward the conclusion that the arms trade is an effective foreign policy tool to secure and maintain access to oil. As such, the arms trade reveals national interests beyond simple economic considerations and the volume of bilateral arms transfers can be used as a barometer of political relations between the supplier and the recipient states. At the same time, we find that oil might play an even larger role in influencing economic and political decisions than is generally acknowledged.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95089/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vincenzo Bove does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The connection between oil and arms trade is not a conspiracy theory.
Vincenzo Bove, Reader in Politics and Quantitative Methods, University of Warwick
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/91559
2018-02-13T22:11:49Z
2018-02-13T22:11:49Z
Canada’s checkered history of arms sales to human rights violators
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205837/original/file-20180211-51703-hlh45x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The controversial $12-billion sale of light armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia has embroiled Justin Trudeau’s government in controversy. The vehicle in question is shown here at a news conference at a General Dynamics facility in London, Ont., in 2012. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Spowart</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Canadian government has been taking flak lately for its arms sales. </p>
<p>Helicopters <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/canada-helicopters-philippines-military-attack-1.4527456">destined for the Philippines</a> could be used for internal security in President Rodrigo Duterte’s harsh crackdowns, critics charge. </p>
<p>The $12-billion sale of light armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia has also embroiled Justin Trudeau’s government in controversy.</p>
<p>In response, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland <a href="http://www.rcinet.ca/en/2018/02/09/canada-arms-export-rules-saudi-arms-deal-freeland/">has pledged to review both deals</a>, suggesting Canada is toughening up arms sales restrictions based on human rights grounds. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205841/original/file-20180211-51706-bj4mrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205841/original/file-20180211-51706-bj4mrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205841/original/file-20180211-51706-bj4mrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205841/original/file-20180211-51706-bj4mrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205841/original/file-20180211-51706-bj4mrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205841/original/file-20180211-51706-bj4mrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205841/original/file-20180211-51706-bj4mrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland speaks to MPs on Parliament Hill in February 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span>
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<p>But how did Canada get into the international arms trade, anyway? </p>
<p>A look at the history of how Canada started selling weapons overseas following the Second World War reveals that, contrary to Freeland’s implication, Canada actually used to be much more restrictive on arms sales than it is today.</p>
<p>Canada has not made human rights any more central to its arms export policy than it was in the 1940s — in fact, it’s reduced oversight and the consideration of human rights issues when it comes to selling arms. </p>
<p>“Canada’s export controls are among the most rigorous in the world,” <a href="http://www.international.gc.ca/controls-controles/report-rapports/mil-2016.aspx?lang=eng">the government states</a>. </p>
<p>It “strives to ensure that, among other policy goals, Canadian exports are not prejudicial to peace, security or stability in any region of the world or within any country.” In the post-Second World War period, Canada did not exactly “strive to ensure” these things — but it did say no when there was a risk of any of them happening.</p>
<h2>How Canada got into the arms trade</h2>
<p>Indeed, Canada entered the arms trade cautiously and carefully. After the Second World War, Ottawa was willing to pass surplus military equipment in Europe to allied governments. </p>
<p>But sales to less reliable countries, and those who might actually use the weapons, always required approval by the full cabinet. Prime Minister Mackenzie King <a href="http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/politics-government/cabinet-conclusions/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=6285">noted</a> that “great care should be taken with respect to all sales of weapons and supplies of war to foreign governments.” </p>
<p>The first test came in 1946, when cabinet agreed to sell six million 30-calibre cartridges and four million magazines to the Dutch army just as it was about to embark on a <a href="https://creators.vice.com/en_us/article/53wqxz/unreleased-indonesian-national-revolution-pics">colonial war in Indonesia</a>. But when the Dutch asked for 10,000 Sten machine guns for use in Indonesia, Canadian officials turned them down.</p>
<p>“We have no reason to believe that Canadian public opinion would support such a sale, nor would it be in the Canadian interest to make the sale,” according to one document from the day, now filed at <a href="http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Pages/home.aspx">Library and Archives Canada</a>. </p>
<p>Why? </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205839/original/file-20180211-51713-70q4yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205839/original/file-20180211-51713-70q4yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205839/original/file-20180211-51713-70q4yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205839/original/file-20180211-51713-70q4yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205839/original/file-20180211-51713-70q4yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205839/original/file-20180211-51713-70q4yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205839/original/file-20180211-51713-70q4yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A Dutch soldier is seen here questioning Indonesian villagers in this undated photo taken some time between 1945 and 1950.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Creative Commons/Tropenmuseum)</span></span>
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<p>The guns would probably be employed in the “‘pacification’ of the native population,” exposing the government to “severe domestic and international criticism for supplying these arms” and potentially “prejudic(ing) for a long time our commercial relations with the Indonesians.”</p>
<p>Any further talk of helping the Netherlands — a close Canadian ally — was blocked by the Department of External Affairs</p>
<h2>No to China</h2>
<p>Cabinet did get to decide on a proposal in 1946 to sell warships to China, then a pro-American regime desperately fighting off the advances of Mao Zedong’s Chinese communists.</p>
<p>The Canadian government certainly sympathized with the Chinese Republicans. And the sale of 10 or 11 surplus Canadian frigates would have netted Canada some $2 million — the equivalent of $27 million in today’s money. Yet cabinet <a href="http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/politics-government/cabinet-conclusions/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=7069">blocked the sale</a> on the grounds that the ships “might be used in civil warfare.” </p>
<p>The same logic underpinned a Canadian decision to <a href="http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/politics-government/cabinet-conclusions/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=8573">bar all military exports to Chinese Republicans</a> in 1947. </p>
<p>In both cases, the logic was clear: Canada should sell arms only to close allies, and if there was any likelihood of use against civilians, no sale should be made.</p>
<h2>Arming a dictatorship: Indonesia</h2>
<p>By the 1970s, however, Canada had thrown early caution to the winds, becoming a keen seeker of arms exports. A <a href="http://lactualite.com/societe/2017/02/05/marchandises-militaires-la-grande-hypocrisie-canadienne/">recent analysis</a> shows that Canada supplied $5.8 billion worth of arms over the past 25 years to countries classed as “dictatorships” by the human rights group Freedom House. </p>
<p>The example of arms sales to Indonesia curiously shows both a greater Canadian willingness to sell and the limits to that willingness.</p>
<p>Indonesia notoriously <a href="https://www.unsw.adfa.edu.au/school-of-humanities-and-social-sciences/timor-companion/invasion">invaded</a> the former Portuguese colony of East Timor in 1975, with more than <a href="https://www.ictj.org/news/10-years-cavr-report-timor-leste-truth">100,000</a> Timorese perishing under the subsequent military occupation. From 1975 to 1991, Canada nonetheless <a href="http://oceanpark.com/notes/books/genocide_in_paradise/genocide_13.htm">was willing to sell arms</a> to Indonesia. </p>
<p>Writing in the 1980s, Timorese leader <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-17422094">José Ramos Horta</a> described Canadian “double standards” in <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=WsFVXrVEEekC&pg=PA143&lpg=PA143&dq=funu+canada&source=bl&ots=EnmNlYADLt&sig=zHs9BsZItC39WrWRRCrplqKEL-U&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjHz8DYrJ_ZAhXwUN8KHSAjCGAQ6AEILzAC#v=onepage&q&f=false">scathing terms</a>: “These weapons play an important role in the war in East Timor. But how does the Canadian government explain the weapons exports to Indonesia if Canadian law states that export permits should be issued only for ‘non-conflict’ areas? Simply by asserting that there is no armed conflict in East Timor – knowing that to be a lie.”</p>
<p>Yet there were limits. </p>
<p>In 1991, a massacre in East Timor prompted Barbara McDougall, foreign minister in Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative government, <a href="http://stopwapenhandel.org/sites/stopwapenhandel.org/files/imported/publicaties/boekenbrochures/Indonesia_0.pdf">to impose an arms embargo.</a></p>
<p>There was no suggestion that Canadian-made arms had been used in the massacre, but McDougall was taking no chances. </p>
<p>Arms sales to Indonesia resumed as <a href="https://prism.ucalgary.ca/bitstream/handle/1880/51199/From_Kinshasa_to_Kandahar_2016_chapter04.pdf?sequence=6">Jean Chrétien’s government embraced Indonesia</a>, but there was increasing dissent within the Department of Foreign Affairs about it.</p>
<p>“Any question of military sales to Indonesia, by definition, is a sensitive issue,” one divisional director wrote. After all, he noted acidly, “the Indonesian army is still killing people in East Timor.” </p>
<p>In September 1999, after extensive public pressure, foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy imposed an arms embargo as <a href="http://www.history.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/u184/robinson/robinson_east_timor_1999_english.pdf">pro-Indonesia militia groups</a> killed, forcibly relocated and terrorized the Timorese population. No evidence was required that Canadian-supplied weapons were being used against civilians. The government simply acted. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205840/original/file-20180211-51700-5cupcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205840/original/file-20180211-51700-5cupcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205840/original/file-20180211-51700-5cupcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205840/original/file-20180211-51700-5cupcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205840/original/file-20180211-51700-5cupcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205840/original/file-20180211-51700-5cupcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205840/original/file-20180211-51700-5cupcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Lloyd Axworthy, second from left, is seen here with othelink text r foreign ministers at an emergency ministerial meeting on the East Timor crisis in Auckland, N.Z., in 1999.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Greg Baker)</span></span>
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<h2>Bending away from justice</h2>
<p>Some 80 years ago, British historian Herbert Butterfield <a href="http://www.eliohs.unifi.it/testi/900/butterfield/preface.html">criticized those who rewrite the past</a> in order “to produce a story which is the ratification if not the glorification of the present.”</p>
<p>This <a href="https://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/prospective-undergrads/virtual-classroom/secondary-source-exercises/sources-whig">“Whiggish” view of history</a> insists that things get better over time, in a progressive arc leading to general improvement. </p>
<p>It’s this sense that Chrystia Freeland invokes when she <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-arms/canada-says-will-clamp-down-on-arms-exports-amid-rights-concerns-idUSKBN1FS3E7">promises</a> to ban the sale of a weapon “if there were a substantial risk that it could be used to commit human rights violations” — and describes that as progress. </p>
<p>In actual fact, if previous debates on arms sales are anything to go by, Canada is less vigilant on human rights than it was in 1946, or even in 1999. It has some way to go before it approaches the standards that once prevailed. </p>
<p>The arc of Canadian arms sales is long, but it seems to bend away from, not towards, human rights.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91559/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Webster receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council and Canada Foundation for Innovation.</span></em></p>
Canada used to be more careful about selling arms to countries that practised human rights violations. What happened?
David Webster, Associate Professor of History, Bishop's University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.