The Regional Approach to Stockpile Reduction (RASR) initiative encourages nine affected South-east European governments to develop a pro-active, coordinated, regional approach to secure and destroy excess stockpiles. The RASR initiative's aim is to prevent disastrous explosions and misuse of conventional weapons and munitions.
Unplanned explosions at munitions sites (UEMS) are a significant safety concern for governments and a major security challenge for the international community. The Small Arms Survey has documented more than 500 such incidents in 100 countries over the 35-year period from 1979 to 2013.
Around 875 million firearms are in circulation worldwide, with three-quarters of these in civilian hands, according to Small Arms Survey estimates. These widely-cited calculations are the result of an ongoing programme on inventories and stockpiles—started over a decade ago—to gather comprehensive data on the distribution of small arms and light weapons around the world. The programme has developed an ever larger pool of information that was initially scarce and unsystematic, but now can provide increasingly accurate and up-to-date knowledge of small arms and light weapon holdings.
In the second installment of this two-episode podcast on 'Small Arms Survey 2015: Weapons and the World', Yearbook Coordinator Glenn McDonald and Researcher Claudia Seymour introduce the four case studies discussing armed actors, focusing on their procurement and use of small arms, and their stockpile management practices.
In this episode of the Small Arms Survey podcast series, our Director Eric Berman discusses our Making Peace Operations More Effective (MPOME) project and our October 2017 report Making a Tough Job more Difficult: Loss of Arms and Ammunition in Peace Operations.
The Small Arms Survey 2011: States of Security (Yearbook 2011) considers the growth of the private security industry and its firearms holdings worldwide; private security use by multinational corporations; emerging weapons technology ; and legislative controls over civilian possession of firearms. Case studies provide original research on ongoing security challenges in Côte d’Ivoire, Haiti, and Madagascar.
The Small Arms Survey 2013: Everyday Dangers (Yearbook 2013) explores the many faces of armed violence outside the context of conflict. Chapters on the use of firearms in intimate partner violence, the evolution of gangs in Nicaragua, Italian organized crime groups, and trends in armed violence in South Africa describe the dynamics and effects of gun violence in the home and on the street.
The Small Arms Survey 2014: Women and Guns (Yearbook 2014) considers the multiple roles of women in the context of armed violence, security, and the small arms agenda. The volume’s thematic section comprises one chapter on violence against women and girls—with a focus on post-conflict Liberia and Nepal—and another on the recent convergence of the small arms agenda with that of women, peace, and security. Complementing these chapters are illustrated testimonies of women with experience as soldiers, rebels, and security personnel.
The life-cycle management of ammunition—or LCMA—is a set of interconnected processes and activities designed to keep the ammunition stockpiles of national authorities safe and secure while meeting their strategic and operational needs. As work continues to mainstream gender into security sector institutions and practices, ammunition management efforts in this field lag behind.
Reaching for the Gun: Arms Flows and Holdings in South Sudan reviews arms flows and holdings in South Sudan among both state and non-state armed forces as of early 2012, situating recent developments against historical trends and patterns of supply. It updates a previous HSBA report on small arms and light weapons flows and holdings in Sudan from December 2009.