John Duncan

ARMS TRADE TREATY: SOMALIA

After a week when France and America have taken decisive military action against the Somali Pirates I am again struck by the urgent need to deal with the strategic agenda of weapons proliferation. Otherwise we will have to continually repeat the operational one. Hilary Clinton has rightly said when the house is burning the first thing to do is to put out the fire. Very true, but until we establish much better international regulation of the arms trade, weapons will continue to flow into conflict areas into the hands of terrorists, insurgents and criminals and we will keep having to put out the fires.

Not only that but the risk to our law enforcement and intervention forces is becoming greater as those they have to deal with are increasingly better armed. Greater risk means greater cost. So yes we do need to deal with the fire, and decisive action is welcome, but we also need to start building the firebreaks. Many of the new faces in the US team have a solid background in conflict prevention and consequently recognise the strength of this argument.

Posted at 06:31 16 April 2009 by John Duncan  |  Comments[2]