The Harm And Governance Dilemma Of The Proliferation Of Small Arms And Light Weapons

In the post-Cold-War era,the issue of small arms and light weapons has attracted international community's attention with the outbreak of many non-traditional security issues.As a matter of fact,small arms and light weapons have been widely used worldwide,and directly caused a large number of casualties in regional conflicts and national civil wars after World War II.The wide-range using of small arms and light weapons always accidentally hurt civilians and indirectly caused expensive economic losses,then hindered local development.As a result,it may leave a long-term "insecurity" and even a culture of gun violence at the society.There is no doubt that small arms and light weapons now have their feasible and lawful position in the current world.Besides some people think that weapons do not automatically kill people but "people does so".However,recent research on "weapons' instrumentality" displays the gun using in a very different aspect and challenges a direct common sense.It shows that the fatality rate of guns used in conflict situations often differs from intentions,but is more closely related to the caliber of guns and subsequent medical treatments and so on.The research theoretically supports the hypothesis that the continued proliferation of small arms and light weapons will have subsequent negative effects.And,historically,due to the lack of international treaties,many countries failed to properly prevent problems of small arms and light weapons and suffered a lot from the negative effects brought about by the proliferation.Some of the small island states in the Pacific experienced gun violence and armed conflicts after the end of the Cold War as well."Human security" was severely damaged during the period.In the reality,small arms and light weapons continually undermine "human security" in many ways,but its governance is by no means easy.Based on the experience of Pacific Island countries,this article believes that the governance effectiveness of small arms and light weapons issues could be very limited if only through state-self-governance;and because arms control negotiations are complicated with so many political and economic considerations and are never dominated by expected values,then the progress of global treaties will naturally go slow.It will be difficult to complete and regulate the governance on small arms and light weapons issues in a short period of time.In addition,there are uncountable rampant weapons circulating in unsearchable black markets and technologies new developed that will create unknown challenges.Therefore,there are the following discussable opinions.At the international level,currently,a regional agreement may be more effective than a global treaty;a more precise scope of constraints is better than a package agreement.At the national level,linking specific rights claims to the governance of small arms and light weapons issues in conflict areas may promote gradual autonomy,while at the same time gaining more space for construction of a comprehensive local governance system.At a more micro level,making more small-caliber weapons replacing the circulation of large-caliber weapons will reduce the number of casualties caused by such weapons.And due to the special nature of such commodities,it is necessary to verify and audit buyers,which is required for both the international trade and states' local trade of small arms and light weapons.