Beyond Viktor Bout: Why the United States needs an Arms Trade Treaty

While the high profile trial of Viktor Bout in New York will show some of the threats the world continues to face from unscrupulous private arms brokers, it only provides a glimpse into a much larger problem. Skilled at operating in the shadows and exploiting weak national arms transfer controls, arms brokers have funneled arms to almost every country under a UN arms embargoes in the last 15 years, often fueling armed conflict and serious human rights violations. The US has worked on at least 70 US prosecutions in the last five years that have charged defendants with crimes related to illegal arms brokering. Yet, it continues to face difficulties in bringing arms brokers to justice and shutting down criminal networks. The lack of effective legal systems addressing the arms trade in many countries enables illicit arms dealers to exploit regulatory gaps and carry out their activities with impunity. The US and the world need an effective global Arms Trade Treaty to help close these gaps and stop the irresponsible trade in deadly weapons.