This book argues that the arming of conflict is complexly structured and highly dynamic. It uncovers and describes the construction and interaction of structures and dynamics at global and regional levels, which shape the arming patterns of both state and non-state actors.

A common feature of conflict in the 1990s is death and suffering from small arms and light weapons. The global diffusion of assault rifles, machine guns, mortars, and rocket-propelled grenades, which can be easily carried by an individual or transported by a light vehicle, has greatly intensified the violence of conflicts in countries around the world. This book represents the perspectives of the foremost specialists on light weapons, and it surveys the wide range of policy options open to the international community. These include export and import controls, law enforcement strategies to break up black markets, collection and destruction of weapons following the end of conflict, and efforts to illuminate how small arms and light weapons make their way to the killing grounds of the 1990s.

The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War introduces law students and undergraduates to the law of war in an age of terrorism. What law of armed conflict/international humanitarian law applies to particular armed conflicts? Does that law apply to terrorists as well? What is the status of participants in an armed conflict? What constitutes a war crime? What is a lawful target and how are targeting decisions made? What are rules of engagement? What weapons are lawful and unlawful, and why? This text takes the reader through these essential questions of the law of armed conflict and international humanitarian law to an awareness of finer points of battlefield law. The U.S.-weighted text incorporates lessons from many nations and includes hundreds of cases from jurisdictions worldwide.

This book critically examines the nexus between arms availability and armed violence.

This book explores how BRICS countries respond to, and get involved in, large scale armed conflict. It argues that through responding to armed conflict and deviating from the preferred Western foreign policy, BRICS countries are actively involved in building a multi-polar and post-western world order. The author develops a concise typology of response types portraying a nuanced picture of the BRICS grouping. Responses reach from non-coercive and cooperative multi-lateral behaviour reaching to neo-imperial unilateralism and military intervention. The book explains the selection of response types with reference to six variables which refer to the proximity to war, availability of power resources, the type of conflict, economic interests, the BRICS normative agenda and global humanitarian norms. Four armed conflicts in Libya, Syria, South Sudan and the Ukraine are chosen to illustrate the BRICS engagement with large scale armed conflicts.

The definitive textbook on the law of international armed conflict.

This volume covers a timely debate in contemporary security studies: can armed forces adjust to the rising challenge of insurgency and terrorism, the greatest transformation in warfare since the birth of the international system? Containing essays by leading international security scholars and military professionals, it explores the Fourth-Generation Warfare thesis and its implications for security planning in the twenty-first century. No longer confined to the fringes of armed conflict, guerrilla warfare and terrorism increasingly dominate world-wide military planning. For the first time since the Vietnam War ended, the problems of insurgency have leapt to the top of the international security agenda and virtually all countries are struggling to protect themselves against terrorist threats. Coalition forces in Afghanistan and Iraq are bogged down by an insurgency, and are being forced to rely on old warfare tactics rather than modern technologies to destroy their adversaries. These theorists argue that irregular warfare—insurgencies and terrorism—has evolved over time and become progressively more sophisticated and difficult to defeat as it is not centred on high technology and state of the art weaponry. Global Insurgency and the Future of Armed Conflict will be of interest to students of international security, strategic studies and terrorism studies.