Small Arms Survey 2008 Risk and Resilience

The Small Arms Survey 2008 presents two thematic sections. The first examines the problem of diversion in all its aspects: stockpiles, surplus disposal, international transfers, and end-user documentation. It includes a case study on South Africa and a comic strip illustrating the potential ease by which someone with access to forged documentation can make arrangements to ship munitions virtually anywhere. The second thematic section analyses the public health approach to armed violence, scrutinizing risk and resilience factors and considering related interventions. It includes an overview of the burden of armed violence, and two case studies of armed violence in El Salvador and the United States. A chapter on light weapons production rounds out the volume.

Foreword Bernard Kouchner; 1. Light weapons: products, producers, and proliferation; 2. Arsenals adrift: arms and ammunition diversion; 3. A semi-automatic process? Identifying and destroying military surplus; 4. Deadly deception: arms transfer diversion; 5. Who's buying? End-user certification; 6. The meaning of loss: firearms diversion in South Africa; Comic strip. Adventures of a would-be arms dealer; 7. Reducing armed violence: the public health approach; 8. Risk and resilience: understanding the potential for violence; 9. Targeting armed violence: public health interventions.

The Small Arms Survey 2008 presents two themes. The first examines the problem of diversion in stockpiles, surplus disposal, international transfers, and end-user documentation with a case study on South Africa. The second analyses the public health approach to armed violence, scrutinizing risk and resilience factors and considering related interventions.

The Small Arms Survey is an independent research project located at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. It serves as the principal source of public information on all aspects of small arms and armed violence and as a resource centre for governments, policy-makers, researchers, and activists. The project has an international staff with expertise in security studies, political science, law, economics, development studies, and sociology, and collaborates with a network of partners in more than 50 countries.