Multilateral mechanism to regulate arms exports under the Arms Trade Treaty

This article solves the scientific problem of analyzing the latest trends in regulating the arms and military equipment exports at the multilateral level. The main stages in the evolution of a system of international control over the arms and military equipment exports, including the provisions of the global Arms Trade Treaty, are traced. The scientific novelty of the study lies in identifying the main advantages and disadvantages of the Arms Trade Treaty, as well as alternative mechanisms for limiting the global arms and military equipment exports. It has been demonstrated that the future goal of the Arms Trade Treaty should be the universalization of common regulatory standards for the international arms trade, but this requires more transparent national systems for foreign trade in arms, since there is almost no information about the fate of weapons after they are sold to third parties. Ultimately, it is necessary to strive not just to limit international trade but to reduce the large volumes of weapons throughout the world. The scientific result of the study was the development of a classification of regions and countries from the point of view of possible limitation of their participation in the international arms trade. As a result of the study, possible ways to resolve the shortcomings of the Arms Trade Treaty and possible solutions for states to solve the problem of arms proliferation were proposed. The results of the study may be useful to representatives of the expert and scientific community involved in developing problems of the development of modern international trade and individual world commodity markets.

weapons and military equipment, export, international trade, Arms Trade Treaty, technology transfer