‘A serious threat to peace, reconciliation, safety, security’: An effective reading of the United Nations Programme of Action
Evaluations of the 2001 Conference on the illicit trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons and the Programme of Action (PoA) which it produced cover the gamut from success to failure. This essay does not seek to explain the success or failure of the Conference, nor does it look forward to the 2006 Conference and beyond to see what possibilities there are for global public policy on SALW. It is concerned, rather, with the topography of the issue which will come to the table in 2006. By means of Michel Foucault’s notion of ‘effective history’, the essay investigates the problem that the PoA has produced. It shows how that problem is constituted around two key features: small arms and light weapons as a particular category of technology, and the division between the licit and illicit trade. It demonstrates both the contingency of this framing and the effects that it has produced. In particular, it shows how this framing makes possible a set of ‘proliferation control’ practices similar to those applied to other forms of military technology, and how it masks forms of gun violence, particularly those directed against women.
Humanitarian Practices of Arms Control and Disarmament
This article dwells briefly on the positivist and critical security studies approaches to classifying practices of humanitarianism, arms control, and disarmament as old and new. It then expands on this classification by focusing on three specific constitutive practices of identity, expertise and security to demonstrate alignments of power forged between state and non-state actors as they navigate possibilities of creating a humanitarian space in the field of arms control and disarmament to reconceptualize practices of arms control and disarmament as a problem of human security. The article argues that these efforts cannot produce a paradigm shift capable of transforming practices of arms control and disarmament unless they are accompanied by a greater degree of reflexivity among the humanitarian actors on their practices as they strive to meet the conditions of acceptance established by sovereign nation-states as the dominant actors in the field of arms control and disarmament.
Does owning a firearm increase or decrease the risk of death?
A firearm can potentially offer both benefits and risks to the health of its owner. Balancing risks is something that clinicians commonly do in medicine. For example, when considering a prescriptionforhormonereplacementtherapy,cliniciansmust weigh a somewhat higher risk for endometrial cancer against a lower risk for heart disease. Although the pros and cons of gun ownership have been the subject of impassioned debate, using an evidence-based approach to address the patient’s question is appealing.