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Contents
Case studies
Background paper
About the authors
Download the Executive summary
This report is the
first analysis of the 27 United Nations arms embargoes that have been imposed since
1990. UN arms embargoes have been criticized as having a limited impact
on reducing arms flows to their targets or improving target behaviour.
Against this background the report offers a reassessment of UN arms
embargoes, their objectives and their effects. In particular it
considers the impact of the Interlaken (1999–2001), Bonn–Berlin
(2000–2001) and Stockholm (2001–2003) processes, which offered a range
of proposals for developing the focus and implementation of arms
embargoes. The report is the first comprehensive assessment of UN arms
embargoes implemented since the innovations deriving from these
processes were introduced.
In an effort to
further improve the effectiveness of the targeting of
UN arms embargoes, this report offers a typology to be considered when
designing and assessing UN arms embargoes. The typology distinguishes
between the different international peace and security end goals of:
- countering
threats against Global Security;
- strengthening
legitimate Government Authority; and
- achieving the
peaceful political settlement of a violent armed conflict through
Conflict Management.
The results indicate
that embargoes have different impacts on arms flows and target
behaviour in these three types of situation. In reaching these
conclusions, the researchers have also looked carefully at alternative
explanations.
Recommendations for
strengthening the implementation of arms embargoes
are addressed in particular to the UN Security Council, but will be of
interest to all UN member states, UN agencies, regional organizations,
non-governmental organizations, researchers and the concerned general
public.
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Contents
Executive summary (download)
1. Introduction
2. Assessing the impact of threats of a UN arms embargo
3. Assessing the implementation of UN arms embargoes
4. Assessing the impact of ending a UN arms embargo
5. Recommendations for the UN Security Council
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Case studies
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Background paper
'UN arms embargoes and target behaviour, 1990–2006',
by Daniel Strandow, is available on the SPITS website.
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About the authors
SIPRI
Damien Fruchart (United Kingdom) is a researcher at Ethix Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) Advisors. He was a Research Assistant with the SIPRI Arms Transfers Project from October 2006 to May 2007. He has a BA in Chinese and Japanese Studies from the University of Leeds and a master's degree from Uppsala University. Previously, he held an internship with the European Commission's delegation in Beijing, China.
Dr Paul Holtom (United Kingdom) is a Researcher with the SIPRI Arms Transfers Project. He was the Lead Researcher on small arms and light weapons projects in north-eastern and south-eastern Europe for Saferworld. He is the author of several journal articles on the Baltic states, Kaliningrad and the Russian Federation, and of Arms Transit Trade in the Baltic Sea Region (Saferworld, 2003), Turning the Page: Small Arms and Light Weapons in Albania (Saferworld, 2005) and Small Arms Production in Russia (Saferworld, 2007).
Siemon T. Wezeman (Netherlands) has worked in the SIPRI Arms Transfers Project since 1992 and has led the project since mid-2006. Among his publications are several on international transparency in arms transfers. He is the author of The Future of the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms, SIPRI Policy Paper no. 4 (August 2003), and co-author of Cluster Weapons: Necessity or Convenience? (Pax Christi Netherlands, 2005).
Uppsala University
The Special Program on the Implementation of Targeted Sanctions (SPITS) is a project within the Uppsala University Department of Peace and Conflict Research. SPITS worked with the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs organizing the Stockholm Process, resulting in the Stockholm Report on Making Targeted Sanctions Effective. The report was presented to the UN Security Council in 2003. Since then SPITS has studied implementation of a series of sanctions: Iraq, Burma/Myanmar (EU sanctions), Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire.
Daniel Strandow (Sweden) is a PhD candidate at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University. His previous experience includes working as a research assistant and associate within areas of conflict data, human security, conflict prevention and UN sanctions, and as a consultant for the private sector. He is the author of several reports on sanctions and conflict: Sanctions and Civil War: Targeted Measures for Conflict Resolution (Uppsala University, 2006) and Sanctions for Conflict Prevention and Peace Building: Lessons Learned from Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia (Uppsala University, co-authored with Peter Wallensteen, and Mikael Eriksson, 2006). His current research includes third party settlement efforts in internal conflicts through sanctions and aid.
Professor Peter Wallensteen (Sweden) has held the Dag Hammarskjöld Chair in Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University since 1985 and has been the Richard G. Starmann Sr Research Professor of Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame since 2006. He directs the Uppsala Conflict Data Program and the Special Program on the Implementation of Targeted Sanctions. The second, updated edition of his book Understanding Conflict Resolution: War, Peace and the Global System (Sage) was published in 2007. He is co-editor of International Sanctions: Between Words and Wars in the Global System (Frank Cass, 2005).
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Publisher: SIPRI and Uppsala University
ISBN 978-91-85114-56-6
57 pp.
November 2007
Price: €7.50 per copy plus €5 shipping and handling per order
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