Forum on the Arms Trade

The Forum on the Arms Trade is a network of civil society experts and a point of contact for strengthening public efforts to address the humanitarian, economic and other implications of arms transfers, security assistance, and weapons use. Managed from Washington DC, the Forum provides a venue for bringing its community's wide-ranging expertise together to amplify and strengthen its work, while also offering government and media members a one-stop resource for the latest information, analysis, and best contacts. Forum-listed experts are located around the world and work on diverse topics including human rights, development, arms control, humanitarian disarmament, cybersecurity, arms and the environment, anti-corruption, and related fields.

Experts' Publications

Highlighting publications in which Forum-listed experts were involved. Inclusion on the Forum on the Arms Trade expert list does not indicate agreement with or endorsement of the opinions of others.

UN General Assembly First Committee

Ray Acheson (editor), "First Committee briefing book 2017," Reaching Critical Will, Sept 2017

Jeff Abramson, "Congress Should Not Cede Oversight on Small Arms Exports," Issue Brief, Arms Control Association, Oct 5

William Hartung, "U.S. Arms Transfers to the UAE and the War In Yemen," Center for International Policy, Sept 2017

Colby Goodman and Rachel Stohl, "Five dangers of giving the Commerce Department oversight of firearms exports [commentary]," DefenseNews, Sept 25.

Patrick Wilcken (contributor), "From London to Juba: A-UK Registered Company's Role in One of the Largest Arms Deals to South Sudan," Amnesty International, Sept 25

Samuel Perlo-Freeman, "Just how big is the international arms trade? (part one) and (part two)," World Peace Foundation, Sept 25

Seth Binder, "Are we making the same mistakes in Iraq?," Inkstick, Sept 18

Arms Trade Treaty Conference of States Parties

Rachel Stohl, "Third Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty Short on Substance" Stimson, Sept 21

Allison Pytlak, "Sliding into norm erosion," and Ray Acheson, "News in brief," Reaching Critical Will's ATT Monitor, Vol. 10, No. 6, Sept 18

Ray Acheson, "Gaslighting and mansplaining at CSP3," Natalie Goldring, "It's time for deeds, not just words," and Allison Pytlak, "News in Brief," Reaching Critical Will's ATT Monitor, Vol. 10, No. 5, Sept 15

Allison Pytlak, "Out of the shadows and into reality ," Frank Slijper, "Under the radar: arms transfers to the United Arab Emirates," Cesar Jaramillo, "Yemen in the time of cholera," and Ray Acheson "News in Brief," Reaching Critical Will's ATT Monitor, Vol. 10, No. 4, Sept 14

Rachel Stohl, "Synergies Between the Arms Trade Treaty and UNSCR 1540," Stimson, Sept 13

Rasha Abdul Rahim, "Time to end the civilian suffering fuelled by irresponsible arms trading," Amnesty International blog, Sept 13

Laura Spano (formerly listed expert), "Reinvigorating the Narrative: the Broader Benefits of the Arms Trade Treaty," Centre for Armed Violence Reduction, Sept 13

Rachel Stohl and Paul Holtom "Reporting in Review: Examining ATT Reporting Experiences," ATT Baseline Assessment Project, Sept 13

Ray Acheson, "Bringing the arms fair to the arms treaty," and Allison Pytlak, "News in brief," Reaching Critical Will's ATT Monitor, Vol. 10, No. 3, Sept 13

Deepayan Basu Ray and Martin Butcher "Goals Not Guns: How the Sustainable Development Goals and the Arms Trade Treaty Are Interlinked," ATT Monitor and Oxfam, Sept 12

Allison Pytlak, "A turn to substance? Yes please ," and Ray Acheson, "News in Brief," Reaching Critical Will's ATT Monitor, Vol. 10, No. 2, Sept 12

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Deepayan Basu Ray and Rob Perkins (editors and authors), Rachel Stohl, Nicholas Marsh, Shannon Dick (co-authors, among many others), "ATT Monitor 2017," Control Arms, Sept 11

Allison Pytlak, "Is the Arms Trade Treaty saving lives?" and Ray Acheson, "Confronting explosive violence with the Arms Trade Treaty," Reaching Critical Will's ATT Monitor, Vol. 10, No. 1, Sept 11

Frank Slijper, "Under the Radar: The United Arab Emirates, arms transfers, and regional conflict," PAX1, Sept 11

Other Publications

Wim Zwijnenburg, "Global Ambitions for Armed Drones," PAX Policy Paper, Sept 2017

Erin Hunt, "As UN General Assembly kicks off, all eyes on Canada's disarmament stance," OpenCanada, Sept 13.

Jeff Abramson (editor), "Cluster Munition Monitor 2017," ICBL-CMC, August 31.
Watch press conference archive here.

Bonnie Docherty (interviewed), "Human Rights Watch Raises Concern Over Autonomous Weapons," National Public Radio, August 26.

Roy Isbister +, "Reflections on the UK High Court Decision on arms sales to Saudi Arabia," Saferworld, August 7.

Danielle Preskitt (emerging expert), "Ultimate Loss of Innocence: Child Soldier," Borgen magazine, August 24.

Wim Zwijnenburg, "Why the EU should uphold human rights in its defence policy," E!Sharp, August

Daniel Mahanty, "Why Are More Civilians Dying in US Airstrikes on ISIS?," DefenseOne, August 11.

William Hartung, "Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia: The Corporate Connection," CIPOnline, August 10.

Rachel Stohl, "Examining US Arms Sales to Qatar," Stimson Spotlight, July 20.

Cole Bockenfeld, "The Foreign Affairs Budget: Democracy, Governance, and Human Rights in the Middle East and North Africa," POMED, July 18.

Iain Overton (editor), "Understanding the regional and transnational networks that facilitate IED use," AOAV, July.

Samuel Perlo-Freeman, "UK arms to Saudi – a disappointing, but unsurprising verdict," World Peace Foundation, July 14.

Jeff Abramson, "Opponents Challenge Saudi Arms Sale," Arms Control Today, July/August 2017.

Mark Bromley, "Challenges and good practices in the implementation of the EU’s arms and dual-use export controls: A cross-sector analysis," SIPRI Concept Note, July 2017.

Visit the archive of past publications featuring Forum on the Arms Trade-listed experts.

Exemplary Media Winners - Ivan Angeloviski and Lawrence Marzouk

October 17 - Voters selected Ivan Angelovski and Lawrence Marzouk’s September 12 Balkan Investigative Reporting Network story “The Pentagon's $2.2 Billion Soviet Arms Pipeline Flooding Syria” for top exemplary reporting over the 3nd quarter of 2017 (July-September). See announcement.

Angelovski and Marzouk

RSVP now for Nov 2 event

Experts with experience in U.S. export enforcement, tracking U.S. and global arms trade and corruption, and U.S. military engagement in Afghanistan will offer new recommendations on what can be done to counter corruption in the arms trade. RSVP now.

Notification Tracker

New FMS notifications: Oct 16 - Greece- $2.404 billion for F-16 upgrades Oct 16 and 11 - Kuwait - $29 million for M1A1 tanks $342.6 million for continued C-17 support Netherlands -$53 million for air-to-air missiles (AMRAAM) Oct 6 - Saudi Arabia -$15 billion for THAAD systems Oct 4 - Japan $113 million for medium range air-to-air missiles Sep 29 - Australia $815 million for more than 3000 small diameter bombs Sep 11 - Canada $5.23 billion for 18 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets Sep 8 - Bahrain $2.785 billion for 19 F-16V aircraft, $1.092 billion for upgrades of 20 F-16s to F-16V, $60.25 million for fast patrol boats, and $27 million for TOW missiles. Annual total now more than $49 billion (all countries). see resource

Resource - US-Saudi Arms Sales ($110 Billion Proposed)

Trump announces $110 billion arms deals with Saudi Arabia on May 20, many details of which are unclear. However, more than $17 billion in foreign military sales (FMS) have been notified to Congress, including a $15 billion sale of THAAD systems on October 6. On June 13, Senate voted on legislation (S.J. Res 42) to block the precision-guided munition direct commercial sale that was notified to Congress; the legislation failed by just 3 votes. On May 25 a similar bill (H.J. Res 102) was introduced in the House but did not receive a vote. Go to resource page.

Resource Page - Int'l Trade of Firearms & Ammunition: Move to Commerce Control

On September 8, the U.S. Defense Trade Advisory Group discussed the transfer of US Munitions List (USML) categories I-III to the Commerce Control List (CCL) in 2018. See resource for concerns expressed and more information.