ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the causes and consequences of the proliferation of light weapons. It also develops a framework for thinking about practical measures to address this problem. The chapter begins with a discussion of the nature of light weapons, and then proceeds to develop three propositions. First, the ready availability and continuing proliferation of light weapons pose serious challenges to development, démocratisation, good governance and other aspects of sustainable “human security” and “human development.” Second, underpinning the diffusion of light weapons is a complex ecology of causation that includes the failure of states to provide adequate security against threats of organised or unstructured (i.e., criminal) violence. The persistence of militarised cultural forms; the ready availability of light weapons on the international market is also discussed. And third, to be effective, political measures will have to address the supply and demand sides of the light weapons equation.
