Gun Control Agreements

The United Nation’s Permanent Five (P5), with the addition of Germany, are the top exporters of arms. The United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom have specifically been involved in the most significant weapon agreements and relations. There are many agreements and treaties to control and regulate the mass amounts of weaponry traded and sold to states around the globe. Arm control agreements deal with two separate weapon regimes: weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and small arms and light weapons. It is harder to achieve agreements on small arms and light weapons than weapons of mass destruction because both sides get what they want—developed countries make a profit and developing nations modernize their defense—and states do not states
Nonetheless, the UK and other West European countries, like Germany, France and Italy, have strong export agreements. When the other competitors do not supply a country with arms, these European nations are potential sources of weapons. For example, in the 1980s, the United Kingdom sold combat fighter aircrafts to Saudi Arabia when the United States chose not to. Also, India rejected Russia and America for a major sale in combat aircrafts, and chose France instead (Grimmett and Kerr 11-12). From 2003 to 2007, France was the fourth largest supplier of arms. French President Nicolas Sarkozy played a significant role in promoting their arms exports in the Middle East and North Africa. He met Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi twice during 2007 to discuss potential sales of aircrafts and missiles. Like France, British leaders also played an active role in promoting arms exports to Libya and Saudi Arabia. In 2007, British Prime Minister also met with Gaddafi to discuss a possible $900 million exploration deal between their company BP and Libya (Bromley, Holtom and Wezeman 303-304). Although the UK gradually falls behind the other members of the P5 and Germany in arms export, its company BAE Systems is the third top arms-producing and military services company in the world (excluding Chinese companies) (SIPRI 2011). The UK is also involved the major treaties that are discussed
The NPT has three pillars: non-proliferation, disarmament and peaceful uses of nuclear energy (The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty). However, some countries that signed onto it have violated the treaty. For example in 1999, the United States stored weapons in 27 countries, which goes against Article I of the treaty, which states “not to transfer to any recipient whatsoever nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.” The recipient countries that signed the treaty were considered non-nuclear weapon states and violated Article II, which prohibits them to receive any nuclear weapons. There has also been concern that the entire purpose of the NPT is to police the activities of its non-nuclear weapon member-states (Jayaprakash 43-45). Although there are flaws in both types of agreements, there are more WMD treaties that are successful. WMD pose more of a threat to nations, and countries are doing their best to destroy and prevent the use of these