Routledge Postinternationalism and Small Arms Control: Theory, Politics, Security

Even though impacts generated by the widespread availability and ongoing use of small arms and light weapons have not reached a magnitude sufficient to radically reorder contemporary world affairs, awareness of the nature and extent of these impacts has compelled some international actors to take decisive action. Damien Rogers examines how the international community has responded to the challenge of controlling small arms and light weapons since the early 1990s. Using a postinternationalist analytic framework, he specifically focuses on the maturing relationships between particular actors of world affairs and the nascent interconnectivity between their strategies for, and approaches toward, controlling these weapons. Furthermore, the book identifies ways in which the captains of small arms industry, arms brokers and chief users of these weapons are able to mitigate, resist or elude the intended effects of those responses. Review 'By any reckoning the trade in small arms is big business. And it is here that this generally informed and comprehensive study by Damien Rogers takes aim. It is his thesis that existing governance and state-based systems, by their sanctioning and promotion of what is regarded as legitimate dealing in small arms, comprise the major roadblocks impeding effective or comprehensive solution to this cancer spreading violence and mayhem.' New Zealand International Review '...provides a cogent exploration of the fundamental flaws and misconceptions in global efforts to curtail the small arms trade that urges the international community - states, the UN, NGOs, activists and academics alike - to rethink one of the most pressing and daunting challenges in international affairs.' Kim Huynh, Australian National University, Australia 'A thought-provoking study of the scope and limits of efforts to curb the effects of small arms and light weapons proliferation and misuse. This study's vision of the evolving structure of global politics also provides lessons for a range of progressive initiatives in a complex multilateral and multi-actor world.' Keith Krause, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Switzerland 'The need to control an unbridled flow of small arms is gaining international salience. But how might such efforts progress when states, and the political and governance systems within which they operate, are as much the problem as the means to any cure? This lively and informed study tackles that dilemma with alacrity. For concerned analysts and policy makers this study is essential reading.' Roderic Alley, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand About the Author Dr Damien Rogers, Affiliate Scholar of the School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Australia.