Forum on the Arms Trade
  • Home
  • Annual Conference 2021
  • Experts
    • View all - by location
    • View by issue expertise >
      • View all
      • US Policy and Practice >
        • Arms sales
        • Security assistance
        • Export control
        • Defense industry
      • International Instruments >
        • Arms Trade Treaty
        • CCW
        • Other instruments
      • Weapons >
        • small arms/light weapons
        • drones
        • landmines/cluster munitions
        • killer robots
        • cyber
        • explosive weapons
        • F-35
      • International Trade >
        • Global trade data/trends
        • Strategic trade control
        • Africa
        • Latin America
        • Middle East
        • Europe
        • Asia
      • Implications >
        • Harm to civilians
        • Gender
        • Child soldiers
        • Arms trafficking
        • Corruption
        • Environment
    • A to B >
      • Rasha Abdul Rahim
      • Jeff Abramson
      • Ray Acheson
      • Linda Åkerström
      • Adotei Akwei
      • Waleed Alhariri
      • Radhya al-Mutawakel
      • Alma Taslidzan Al-Osta
      • Peter Asaro
      • David Atwood
      • Kathi Lynn Austin
      • Natalia Báez Zamudio
      • Deepayan Basu Ray
      • Brittany Benowitz
      • Lucie Béraud-Sudreau
      • Seth Binder
      • Subindra Bogati
      • Laura Boillot
      • Matthew Breay Bolton
      • Mark Bromley
      • Martin Butcher
    • C to G >
      • Magda Coss Nogueda
      • Verity Coyle
      • Anna Crowe
      • Maria Pia Devoto
      • Lode Dewaegheneire
      • Shannon Dick
      • Bonnie Docherty
      • Geoffrey L. Duke
      • Nils Duquet
      • Jennifer L. Erickson
      • Andrew Feinstein
      • Aude Fleurant
      • Denise Garcia
      • Dan Gettinger
      • Natalie Goldring
      • Colby Goodman
      • Hector Guerra
    • H to L >
      • William Hartung
      • Lisa Haugaard
      • Alexandra Hiniker
      • Erin Hunt
      • Adam Isacson
      • Roy Isbister
      • Cesar Jaramillo
      • N.R. Jenzen-Jones
      • Adele Kirsten
      • Kate Kizer
      • Michael Klare
      • Guy Lamb
      • Edward J. Laurance
      • John Lindsay-Poland
    • M to R >
      • Daniel Mack
      • Daniel Mahanty
      • Ara Marcen Naval
      • Ivan Marques
      • Jesus Martínez
      • Montserrat Martínez Téllez
      • Nicholas Marsh
      • Stephen Miles
      • Elizabeth Minor
      • Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan
      • Robert Muggah
      • Wanda Munoz
      • Folade Mutota
      • Jasmin Nario-Galace
      • Amy Nelson
      • Linnet L. Wairimu Ng'ayu
      • Diana Ohlbaum
      • Iain Overton
      • Scott Paul
      • Carlos Pérez Ricart
      • Samuel Perlo-Freeman
      • Allison Pytlak
      • Josh Ruebner
    • S to Z >
      • Wilder Alejandro Sanchez
      • Camilo Serna
      • Annie Shiel
      • Stephen Mwachofi Singo
      • Frank Slijper
      • Nate Smith
      • Mandy Smithberger
      • Emma Soubrier
      • Anna Stavrianakis
      • Rachel Stohl
      • A. Trevor Thrall
      • Francesco Vignarca
      • Jodi Vittori
      • Leah Wawro
      • Doug Weir
      • Anne-Charlotte Merrell Wetterwik
      • Patrick Wilcken
      • Cristian Wittmann
      • Elias Yousif
      • Wim Zwijnenburg
  • Emerging Experts
  • Looking Ahead 2021 Blog
  • Resource Page - Trump & Saudi Arms Sales
  • Resource Page - Trump & UAE Arms Sales
  • Major Arms Sales Notifications Tracker
  • Resource Page - U.S. Arms Sales to Taiwan
  • Resource Page - US Landmine Poilicy
  • Resource Page - USML Cat I-III to Commerce
  • U.S. Presidential Election 2020 - Candidate Positions
    • Arms Trade Treaty
    • Arms Sales to Saudi Coalition
    • Firearms Export Oversight
    • Mine Ban Treaty
    • Candidate List >
      • Donald Trump
      • Joe Biden
  • Resource Page - U.S. Arms Sales to India
  • Events
  • Journalists
  • Get on the list
  • Support
  • About
  • Archives
    • All Archives
    • Expert Publications
    • Blog
    • Newsletter

The technology of research

5/29/2015

12 Comments

 
Nicholas MarshNicholas Marsh
Research on the arms trade has been transformed. In the mid-1990s a main activity involved sitting in libraries pouring over dusty books, periodicals and press clippings. Some people uncovered information through fieldwork.  Then the internet arrived, and with it a deluge of information from news sites and online databases. In addition to the patience and persistence needed to hunt through libraries or interview sources, a key skill for arms trade research became the ability to manage and present in an easily comprehendible way huge quantities of textual and numerical data.  

By 2011, authors working with the Small Arms Survey wrote about how video clips uploaded to YouTube and other forms of social media “contain a wealth of information that is beginning to shape public understanding of the arms trade.” Personally, I had used YouTube and other sites to locate images of arms used in the Libyan civil war, including weapons supplied by foreign powers. However, when a few of the small band of arms trade researchers got together we realized that social media presented huge problems. Watching videos and searching through them for information was very time consuming; and geo-locating and verifying their contents even more so. We earnestly wondered whether a funder would provide a grant for someone to spend all their time looking at YouTube videos, searching Facebook and tracking other online sources.

Fortunately, the solution came as a new group of researchers – often blogging in their spare time – dedicated the time and developed the methods needed to analyze videos and other material found via social media. This was made possible by a key new element of the technology of research – the ability via social media to rapidly create networks, share information, and even raise money.  Eliot Higgins and the others publishing at Bellingcat are among the most prominent today at this, and they are joined by other researchers who have made globally important findings from sources of information that didn’t exist just over a decade ago.

While our knowledge has certainly advanced, there are still very important areas that are unknown or at best opaque.  Outlined below are areas where the need remains to develop new technologies of research, without forgetting the contributions of written sources, databases, social media, and fieldwork.

Beyond the low hanging fruit. Arms flows into and within the wars in Libya, Syria, Iraq and Ukraine have understandably received a lot of attention, but there are many other wars where information from social media, databases and written sources  is much more difficult to obtain or  analyze – in particular sub-Saharan  Africa. Fieldwork has always been an answer, but safety and more importantly resource constraints mean that it can only be carried out in a fraction of the places where it is needed. We need to develop methods to obtain more information on arms flows into and within the more difficult places to research.

Outside warfare. Most attention is understandably focused upon warfare, but by far the greatest proportion of violent deaths are homicides. The methods and flows of arms to areas with high levels of criminal violence are much less understood than to war zones with comparable levels of violent death. Analysis of these requires new data and innovative methodologies to analyze it. Some important work has been done, but much more is needed.


Picture


The Homicide Monitor interface panel. Photo: Screengrab

Repressive regimes and their weapons. An area that has been studied for a long time, but certainly needs more attention, is transfers to repressive governments. As well as items that have been studied for decades – weapons, ammunition, police equipment, and torture materials ­– a focus is needed on new technologies such as equipment used for mass surveillance. 

Deeper questions on what matters and works. Finally, and most importantly, research has mostly focused upon working out what is being transferred to whom and how those transactions take place. These are important goals, but the information created needs to be used to answer larger questions. After over two decades of international attention on the conventional arms trade, culminating in the Arms Trade Treaty, we still need to know much more about:

  • What is the size of the illicit arms trade? Is it increasing or decreasing, and if so where?
  • Are the many national and international policy initiatives concerning the authorized trade and arms holdings actually working? If so, under what circumstances?
  • What kinds of arms transfers have the greatest influence upon violent death, injury, repression, corruption and other forms of harm? 

Answering these requires not just more and better data, but greatly improved technologies of research in order to analyze results. Answering them is needed as research on the arms trade shouldn’t just be about working out who sent what to where, but how the arms trade affects the world around us.

Nicholas Marsh is a Research Fellow at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO).


12 Comments
Jeff Abramson link
5/29/2015 03:56:31 am

Thanks for raising these points, Nic. I think the questions on whether these instruments are working are important ones. Hopefully there will be some conversation about that at the MGE next week, at least in the halls. Also hopeful that Control Arms's ATT Monitor will help drive those questions for the ATT.

Reply
Neil corney
6/2/2015 01:53:50 am

Thanks Nic, good points. Despite the rise in the internet, or maybe because of the swamp of information, it has become harder to find answers to some questions. Globalisation and the shift of production to states with more lax controls is problematic. A crucial question too is how to follow up stories, many cases where expose of something gets some atttention, but little concrete government / legal action, actors then continue doing business as we all rush onto the next topic / story.

Reply
find this link
3/12/2017 12:51:08 am

useful information on topics that plenty are interested on for this wonderful post.Admiring the time and effort you put into your b!..

Reply
easy essay link
10/27/2018 08:29:22 am

Technology of the research has been marked for the regular features for the individuals. It has been consumed with the help of the vital parts for the humans. The facilities of the research are conducted at the top of the class of the researchers.

Reply
entertainment apps link
11/14/2019 03:17:02 am

A crucial question too is how to follow up stories, many cases where expose of something gets some attention, but little concrete government / legal action, actors then continue doing business as we all rush onto the next topic / story.

Reply
Starting Busienss in dubai link
12/19/2019 06:50:25 am

Thanks for raising these points, Nic. I think the questions on whether these instruments are working are important ones.

Reply
dubai house prices link
12/20/2019 01:14:33 am

Before looking luxury Dubai houses for sale, you need to organize your finances and know what to evaluate when buying your luxury Dubai houses. Many people dream of buying their first luxury home or apartment in Dubai,

Reply
VAT Accounting Sharjah link
1/11/2020 01:03:48 am

Thanks for raising these points, Nic. I think the questions on whether these instruments are working are important ones

Reply
HRMS Software Abu Dhabi link
1/14/2020 02:44:16 am

I think the questions on whether these instruments are working are important ones.

Reply
oil companies in dubai link
2/4/2020 04:47:24 am

I think the questions on whether these instruments are working are important ones.

Reply
vat enabled accounting software uae link
2/5/2020 01:08:24 am

Thanks for raising these points, Nic. I think the questions on whether these instruments are working are important ones. Hopefully there will be some conversation about that at the MGE next week, at least in the halls.

Reply
oil companies in dubai link
2/6/2020 06:35:42 am

Thanks for raising these points, Nic. I think the questions on whether these instruments are working are important ones.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    About

    The "Looking Ahead Blog" features comments concerning short- to medium-term trends related to the arms trade, security assistance, and weapons use. Typically about 500-1000 words, each comment is written by an expert listed on the Forum on the Arms Trade related to topics of each expert's choosing.

    We have a number of special series including: 


    Looking Ahead 2021
    Looking Ahead 2020

    Looking Ahead 2019
    Looking Ahead 2018
    First 100 Days (April/May '17)

    Looking Ahead 2017

    Inclusion on the Forum on the Arms Trade expert list does not indicate agreement with or endorsement of the opinions of others. Institutional affiliation is indicated for identification purposes only.

    Archives

    January 2021
    July 2020
    May 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    May 2018
    December 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015

    Pdf's

    March 11 (2015)

    Categories

    All
    Adam Isacson
    Africa
    Alejandro Sanchez
    Allison Pytlak
    Amy Nelson
    Anna Stavrianakis
    Arms Sales
    Arms Trade Treaty
    Arms Trafficking
    Aude Fleurant
    Child Soldiers
    Colby Goodman
    Corruption
    Cyber
    Dan Gettinger
    Danielle Preskitt
    Drones
    Environment
    Erin Hunt
    Europe
    Explosive Weapons
    First 100 Days
    Frank Slijper
    Gender
    Global Trade Trends
    Harm To Civilians
    Hector Guerra
    High School Debate '19 20
    High School Debate '19-20
    Humanitarian Disarmament
    Iain Overton
    Jeff Abramson
    John Lindsay Poland
    John Lindsay-Poland
    Kate Kizer
    Killer Robots
    Landmines/cluster Munitions
    Latin America
    Laura Boillot
    Lode Dewaegheneire
    Looking Ahead 2017
    Looking Ahead 2018
    Looking Ahead 2019
    Looking Ahead 2020
    Looking Ahead 2021
    Maria Pia Devoto
    Martin Butcher
    Matthew Bolton
    Middle East
    Military Expenditures
    Natalie Goldring
    Nicholas Marsh
    Non State Actors
    Paul Holtom
    Rachel Stohl
    Ray Acheson
    Robert Muggah
    Robert Watson
    Roy Isbister
    SALW
    Samuel Perlo Freeman
    Samuel Perlo-Freeman
    Security Assistance
    Seth Binder
    Shannon Dick
    Suicide Bombing
    Sustainable Development
    Tobias Bock
    Transparency
    UN Register
    Victim Assistance
    Wanda Muñoz
    William Hartung
    Wim Zwijnenburg
    Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly