Taking Aim at the Arms Trade NGOS, Global Civil Society and the World Military Order

by Stavrianakis, Anna

• ISBN13: 9781848132696
• ISBN10: 1848132697
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-06-15
• Publisher: UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

Summary

Taking Aim at the Arms Tradetakes a critical look at the ways in which NGOs portray the arms trade as a problem of international politics and the strategies they use to effect change. While NGOs have been pivotal in bringing the suffering caused by the arms trade to public attention and documenting its negative impacts on human rights, conflict, security and development around the world, their overall activity has the perverse effect of justifying the status quo in the arms trade. They unintentionally contribute to the generation of consent for a hierarchical and asymmetrical world military order, facilitating intervention in the global South based on liberal understandings of the arms trade and associated issues of conflict, development and human rights. As a consequence, their actions contribute to the construction of the South as a site of Northern benevolence and intervention, a stark contrast to NGOs' self-image and widespread reputation as progressive actors. In exposing the contradictions inherent in NGOs engagement with the arms trade, Stavrianakis argues forcefully for a change of approach that can avoid such damaging outcomes.

Author Biography

Anna Stavrianakis is a Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Sussex. She earned her PhD in the Department of Politics at the University of Bristol. Her main research interests are NGOs and global civil society; the arms trade and military globalization; North-South relations; and critical approaches to the study of international security.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. viii
List of abbreviations	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Conceptualising Global Civil Society	p. 14
What's the Problem? NGOs and the Arms Trade	p. 33
NGO Strategies and the Disciplining of Global Civil Society	p. 62
Arming the North: Transatlantic and European Military Production and Trade	p. 93
Disciplining the South: Development and Human Rights Concerns in the Arms Trade	p. 114
Disarming the South: Small Arms and Conflict	p. 136
NGOs, Global Civil Society and the World Military Order	p. 163
Bibliography	p. 183
Index	p. 208
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.