Global arms trade escalates terrorism

Nahla Abdel Moneim

The Organization for World Peace has said in a researched paper that Western democracies, which bank on arms trade, are fostering conflicts to boost their finances, affecting the Middle East. A number of capital cities have hosted arms fairs over the past years.

Earlier this month, London hosted the biennial Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) fair 2019. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and MP Caroline Lucas were two British political figures who spoke out against the three-day fair. Khan said that he “strongly opposed” that the event took place in London, “a global city, which is home to individuals who have fled conflict and suffered as a consequence of arms and weapons like those exhibited at DSEI.

All five of the permanent member states of the United Nations Security Council numbered among the greatest exporters of arms between 2014-2018, according to the 2019 Yearbook of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). This summary of global military expenditure, nuclear arsenals, and arms trading showed that in the four year period, the United States, the Russian Federation, the People’s Republic of China, France, and the United Kingdom exported 70% of the world’s arms between them, with the U.S accounting 36% of those sales.

In order to prevent the use of weapons and munitions to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity, the Arms Trade Treaty was voted on by the UN General Assembly and came into force in December of 2014. Though many key states are ratified members of the agreement, these parties nevertheless continue to sell arms massively.

Commenting on the researched paper, Nourhan El-Sheikh, a professor of political science at Cairo University, said that investment in arms trading, which capitalizes on the promotion of terrorism and extremism, has been on the rise. She labeled the arms trade as a growing “business”.

The professor told THE REFERENCE that terrorist groups in any area are associated with the economic interests of world countries and the arms trade in particular.

“This applies to the situation in Afghanistan, and that the spending of countries on counterterrorism systems, which benefit the arms-producing countries, which are seeking to increase sales,” she added.