Viktor Bout earned a few monikers in his heyday: \u201cMerchant of Death\u201d, \u201cSanctions Buster\u201d and \u201cLord of War\u201d. He\u2019s the poster boy for illicit arms brokers \u2013 a guild of shadowy intermediaries who link arms suppliers to their end users.<\/p>\n
While Bout sits in a jail in the southern U.S. state of Illinois, U.N. member states are concluding an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) \u2013 an international agreement that hopes to control a trillion-dollar industry and curtail the use of arms for human rights violations.<\/p>\n
But \u201carms brokering\u201d in general was hardly brought up during ATT negotiations at U.N. headquarters, from Mar. 18-28 [2013], even though Bout\u2019s like-minded successors and contemporaries \u2013 many of who fuel the abuse of arms \u2013 remain at large.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s something sinister here,\u201d said Kathi Lynn Austin, executive director of the Conflict Awareness Project<\/a>, referring to the relationships between governments and arms brokers.<\/p>\n \u201cGovernments around the world depend on brokers to carry out their national security operations,\u201d she told IPS, pointing out that brokers are the main facilitators of any arms trade.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you talk about including these actors (in the ATT), and if you talk about bringing stronger control, then you open a can of worms and put a lot of governments on the spot,\u201d said Austin, who\u2019s own efforts led to Bout\u2019s capture.<\/p>\n The reason brokering was not discussed, suspected Austin, was that governments made up their minds about brokering before ATT negotiations even began.<\/p>\n \u201cHad there more time for (member states) to better understand the role of brokers and transporters, than you might have seen a stronger lobby for brokering,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI just think we ran out of time (to convince them),\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Brian Wood, head of arms control at Amnesty International, told IPS that there is an absence of national and international regulations surrounding brokering. Over two-thirds of U.N. member states lack national laws regulating the activity.<\/p>\n The final ATT itself contains only one small paragraph on brokering, which starts, \u201cEach State Party shall take measures, pursuant to its national laws, to regulate brokering under its jurisdiction.\u201d<\/p>\n Wood noted the significance of the phrase \u201cpursuant to its national laws\u201d. He said, \u201cIf two-thirds of countries don\u2019t have (national) laws regulating brokering, then (by definition) the activity is not going to be illicit.\u201d<\/p>\n Andrew Feinstein, author of \u201cThe Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade<\/a>\u201d, told IPS that individual arms brokers are closely linked with defence contractors, governments and intelligence agencies.<\/p>\n Many governments and corporations are largely intertwined with arms brokers, using them as intermediaries to pay bribes and conduct other shadowy activities, he explained.<\/p>\n \u201cVirtually every individual broker who is engaged in massive illegal arms trading activity are at one time or another being accessed by one or more intelligence agencies in the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Feinstein noted that such collusions might have played out during ATT negotiations.<\/p>\n \u201cDefence companies, defence contractors and the defence sector are enormously powerful,\u201d he said. \u201cThe ways their voices are heard are through the power they wield over governments.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese industries have incredibly close relationships with governments\u2026 They have an access to government which is quite unique,\u201d said Feinstein, who served as a member of parliament for the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa.<\/p>\n He also noted the U.K.\u2019s position in the ATT talks. \u201cThe U.K. has been positive about some of the (strong ATT) measures imposed, but the way in which the U.K. engages in the trade is that they use a huge number of intermediaries from the world for the illicit trade,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the U.K. is supporting transparency measures with the knowledge that the really big players (U.S., Russia and China) are going to put it back, and I don\u2019t think they\u2019re actually going to be that disappointed with it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Feinstein warned that if the final ATT is too watered down, it might be worse than not having a treaty at all.<\/p>\n \u201cIt (would) effectively provide a stamp of approval for the status quo as it currently functions, a status quo that only intensifies conflict\u2026 and most ironically make the world a more dangerous place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Who are the arms brokers?<\/b><\/p>\n Wood of Amnesty International told IPS, \u201cThe top arms brokers are what I call professors of the arms trade.<\/p>\n \u201cThey work systematically. They have a breadth of technical and legal knowledge. They have commercial acumen. They know the right people, and they\u2019ll offer a \u2018one-stop-shop\u2019 type of service,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n However, few people have a clear view of the arms brokering network. \u201cNo one has a list of arms brokers, because the governments don\u2019t control them\u2026 We (only) get a snapshot of what\u2019s happening,\u201d said Wood.<\/p>\n The most \u201cnefarious\u201d brokers are the ones who are corrupt and who work to circumvent U.N. arms embargos, he added.<\/p>\n Feinstein, who spoke with an arms dealer as recently as last week, told IPS, \u201cThey have certain common characteristics. The first that strikes me about all of them is that they\u2019re all these absolutely charming, larger than life, charismatic characters.\u201d<\/p>\n Another characteristic, said Feinstein, is that \u201cto a sociopathic extent\u201d, these brokers are unable to comprehend the effects of their actions.<\/p>\n \u201cThey justify in the most compelling ways that what they do is actually good for the world, using phrases like \u2018in defence of humanity\u2019 and \u2018arming people to keep the peace\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re unable to see the other side of what they do, the real human consequences of the ways they make huge amounts of money,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Brokering in the future<\/b><\/p>\n