5 of 16

No

Write now Article Tools

Controlling international arms dealing is impossible, even for the most powerful countries in the world, supposing they even wanted to, which in reality they don't. People forget that the world biggest arms dealers are the same countries that are the first to speak out against the people they sell them to actually using them. Some of the biggest arms dealers in the world are of course the United states, Britain, the former soviet states, China as well as France and Germany. These are pretty much also the most powerful nations in the world as well, and seen as they are all massive arms dealers themselves, who else is there to try and control arms dealing if not themselves, which wont happen as long as they aren't affected directly by the arms they sell.

With the majority of the worlds arms being exported by these countries, who are all powerful and rich themselves, it is impossible to control international arms dealing as these countries, as well as any others are making too much money from it. They are all too quick to condemn use of the weapons they sell, but in reality they are notoriously unscrupulous to who they sell to, and so long as they aren't affected by it themselves, tend to just sell to whoever wants the weaponry. They will often sell to both sides of conflicts, or to African states that are staving their people while they have pointless wars with their neighbors.

So as much as the governments might feign support for tighter controls on arms exporting internationally, so long as they are making billions every year from the sale of these weapons, there is no reason for them to stop selling as they do now. From an idealist point of view, even if they were all to stop exporting and selling arms, there would be plenty of others who would, and the demand would still be there, meaning a huge black market would open up, as well as massive smuggling operations, which with the smugglers being extremely heavily armed, would mean a lot of people would lose their lives should authorities try and stop them.

Learn more about this author, Scott Heritage.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about Is it possible to control international arms trading??
We want to hear your view. Write now!