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.

U.S. Conventional Arms Transfer Policy

Implementation fact sheet released on July 16 by the U.S. Department of State. Find it on our updated resource page.

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

New proposed rule published on May 24 closed for public comment on July 9 -- transfer of some items on US Munitions List (USML) categories I-III to the Commerce Control List (CCL). See resource for concerns expressed and more information.

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.
Erin Hunt, "Peace Prize: Reflections on a Nobel year," OpenCanada, Oct 11.

Ray Acheson, “Disarming the patriarchy,” Allison Pytlak, “Safeguarding peace in cyber space,”  see pdf First Committee Monitor, Reaching Critical Will, Vol. 1, Oct 8.

Elizabeth Minor (co-author), "Drones in the use of force: A way forward" and "Approaches to technology and policy: International standards and addressing drones in the use of force," briefing papers, Article 36, October 2018.

Natalie Goldring, "Quick Guide: Results of the Third Review Conference on the Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons," IANSA briefing paper, October 2018. 

Sam Perlo-Freeman, “Erin Hunt, "Peace Prize: Reflections on a Nobel year," OpenCanada, Oct 11.

Ray Acheson, “Disarming the patriarchy,” Allison Pytlak, “Safeguarding peace in cyber space,”  see pdf First Committee Monitor, Reaching Critical Will, Vol. 1, Oct 8.

Elizabeth Minor (co-author), "Drones in the use of force: A way forward" and "Approaches to technology and policy: International standards and addressing drones in the use of force," briefing papers, Article 36, October 2018.

Natalie Goldring, "Quick Guide: Results of the Third Review Conference on the Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons," IANSA briefing paper, October 2018. 

Sam Perlo-Freeman, “Arms, corruption, and the state: understanding the role of arms trade corruption in political finance”, Economics of Peace and Security Journal, Vol. 13, No. 2, October 2018 (paywall).

Ray Acheson, “To Preserve Our Humanity, We Must Ban Killer Robots,” The Nation, Oct 1, 2018.

Jeff Abramson, "Cluster Munitions Ban Marks Progress" and  "ATT Tackles Diversion, Not Controversy," Arms Control Today, October 2018.

Ray Acheson and Allison Pytlak (editors) with many Forum-listed experts making contributions, “First Committee Briefing Book,” Reaching Critical Will, September 2018.

Laura Boillot (co-author), "Explosive weapons: Protecting civilians from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas," Article 36, September 2018.

Brittany Benowitz, "Why Support for U.N.-backed Anti-Corruption Commission in Guatemala is Vital to U.S. Interests," Just Security, Sept. 24.

Wim Zwijnenburg, "Europe’s deadly silence on armed drones," VOXeurop, Sept 21.

William Hartung, “Congress Can Help End The Suffering In Yemen," LobeLog, Sept 19.

Colby Goodman and Christina Arabia (emerging expert), “Corruption in the Defense Sector: Identifying Key Risks to U.S. Counterterrorism Aid,” Security Assistance Monitor, Sept 13.

Rachel Stohl, “Arms Trade Treaty Still Not Meeting Potential,” Stimson Center, Sept 12.

Wim Zwijnenburg, "Burning Borderlands: Open-Source Monitoring of Conflict-caused Wildfires in Iraq," Bellingcat, Sept 11.

Jeff Abramson, Amelie Chayer, Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan, and Mary Wareham, Cluster Munition Monitor 2018, ICBL-CMC, Aug 30.

Rachel Stohl and Shannon Dick, "The Arms Trade Treaty and Drones," Stimson Center, Aug 23.

Bonnie Docherty, “Ban ‘Killer Robots’ to Protect Fundamental Moral and Legal Principles," The Conversation, Aug 23 and “Why We Need a Pre-Emptive Ban on ‘Killer Robots,’” HuffPost, Aug 22.
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Fourth Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty - August 20-24
Allison Pytlak, “Action, Transparency, Trust,” (No.5), "Transparency and universalisation—double-edged swords?," (No. 4), "From Recognition to Action: Making the ATT Work," (No.3), "A Look Back to Move Forward,” (No. 2), ATT Monitor, Reaching Critical Will, Vol. 11 No. 1-5,  August 2018.
Bonnie Docherty +, "Heed the Call: A Moral and Legal Imperative to Ban Killer Robots," Report, Human Rights Watch, August 21, 2018.
William Hartung, “Donald Trump, Gunrunner for Hire,” The Nation, August 14, 2018.
John Lindsay-Poland +, “Gross Human Rights Abuses: The Legal and Illegal Gun Trade to Mexico,” Report, Mexican Commission for the Defense of Human Rights and Stop US Arms to Mexico, August 2018.
Rachel Stohl, "America Must Update Its Lethal Drone Policy—Here's How," The National Interest, July 29, 2018. 
Robert Muggah, "How Toronto can curb gun violence," The Globe and Mail, July 25, 2018; "A derrocada violenta da Nicarágua," O Globo, July 25, 2018.  
Nicholas Marsh, "The Availability Puzzle: Considering the Relationship between Arms and Violence Taking Place within States," History of Global Arms Transfer, No. 6, July 2018.  
Samuel Perlo-Freeman +, "Arms Trade Corruption and Political Finance," World Peace Foundation / The Fletcher School, July 9, 2018. 
Caroline Dorminey, "Selling American Weapons Overseas Is Risky Business," The Wall Street Journal, July 5, 2018.
Andrew Feinstein +, "The Anglo-Italian Job: Leonardo, AgustaWestland and Corruption Around the World," Corruption Watch UK, June 2018. 
Laura Boillot, “Explosive weapons in populated areas - key questions and answers,” International Network on Explosive Weapons (INEW), June 2018.
Third Review Conference on the Program of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons - June 19-29
Natalie Goldring, "Reflections on UN Alliances," Small Arms Monitor, Reaching Critical Will, Vol. 10 No. 6, July 3, 2018.
Allison Pytlak, "Inside the Theatre of the Absurd—The Final Day of RevCon3," (No. 6), "Moving into the final," (No.5) Allison Pytlak and Ray Acheson, "The world deserves better than the lowest common denominator," (No.4), Allison Pytlak, "What are we doing here, the reasons for the Review Conference," (No. 3) "What does it take to make a difference?" (No.2), “Keeping the UNPoA relevant,” (No. 1), Small Arms Monitor, Reaching Critical Will, Vol. 10 No. 1-6,  June 18-July 3, 2018.
Jasmin Nario-Galace +, "A Call to Action by Civil Society on Gender and Small Arms Control," IANSA, June 2018.
See also "Small Arms: Big Harms...," in Small Arms Monitor, Vol. 10, No. 5, June 29
Elizabeth Minor +, "Targeting Legality: The Armed Drone as a Socio-technical and Socio-Legal System," Journal of the Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, June18 , 2018.
Robert Muggah, "How smart tech help cities fight terrorism and crime," World Economic Forum, June 15, 2018.
Patrick Wilcken, “Missing targets: the legal and ethical blind spots of arms manufacturers,” Amnesty Global Insights, June 13, 2018.
Caroline Dorminey +, "A New Framework for Assessing the Risks from U.S. Arms Sales," War on the Rocks, June 13, 2018.
Visit the archive of past publications featuring Forum on the Arms Trade-listed experts.

Experts Available - US Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia

Notification Tracker

New FMS notifications: Nov 28 - Morocco $1.259 billion for 162 Abrams tank enhancements  Poland $655 million for 20 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARs) Nov 27 - Egypt $1.0 billion for 10 Apache helicopters and $201 million for tank rounds (replacing Sept 17 notification) Qatar $215 million for air-to-air missiles Nov 16 - Japan $561 million for SM-3 1B&2A missiles and $63 million for air to air missiles; NATO $320.5 million for 1000s of JDAM kits;  Oct 19 - United Kingdom $3.5 billion for 16 H-47 Chinook helictopters Oct 3 - Canada $300 million for King Air ISR aircraft Iraq $82.5 million for armed Bell helicopters Sep 28 - Bahrain $300 million for missiles Sep 24 - Taiwan $330 million for blanket order for spare parts for F-16, C-130s and other equipment Sep 19 - United Kingdom $90 million for 3 shallow water combat submersibles and $75 million for Phalanx upgrades Sep 17 - Egypt $99 million for 120MM tank rounds Sep 13 - South Korea $2.1 billion for 6 P-BA patrol aircraft and $501 million for 64 PAC-3 missiles Sep 7 - Japan $3.135 billion for E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft Sep 5 - Netherlands $105 million Patriot recapitalization Aug 9 - Mexico $41 million for Seasparrow missiles Aug 3 - Latvia $200 million for Black Hawk helicopters Aug 2 - Kuwait $40.4 million for bombs.  Annual total for calendar year 2018 is now > $45.5 billion; 2017 was $63.1 billion (all countries).  see resource 

Resource Page - Potential Precision-Guided Munitions Sales to Saudi Arabia, UAE

Invasion of Hodeidah is underway.  Earlier, a controversial precision-guided munition (PGM) sale to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates appeared to be imminent, but on June 28 Senator Menendez said he would oppose/block such a sale. See resource page for more details.

Addressing Non-State Actors: Multiple Approaches (Report)

(May 22) With the global community now more aware of conflicts other than those between states, there is a need to better understand approaches that do—or do not—work when addressing non-state actors. Taking a wide view of what they see in their respective work and an expansive definition of “non-state,” experts offer an array of recommendations. See report.

Annual Conference - May 22

Taking Aim: A Closer Look at the Global Arms Trade.
Watch the video 

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

Trump announces $110 billion arms deals with Saudi Arabia on May 20, 2017, 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, 2017, 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. Go to resource page.

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