Only four days ago, on April 2, 2013, the United Nations General Assembly passed a treaty to regulate arms sales around the globe. Arms trade is a $60 billion business annually, and while lesser lucrative businesses have been regulated, it took a long time to achieve this historical landmark. If you know who benefits from this lucrative business, then you know why it never got regulated.
Peace advocates gave a big hooray because it speaks a lot in terms of peace in general. Except for those who benefit from military activities – the arms business – it is becoming increasingly clear to many, that wars do not ensure peace or co-existence. Actually the opposite is the case because of the animosity, humiliation, resentment and destruction that wars create.
Ironically, in spite of the hoorays, there are some reservations about the effort’s success.
As soon as the resolution was announced, exceptions were also readily announced. Taiwan declared that the treaty won’t affect U.S. weapons sales to that country. Indeed, even though 154 nations voted in favor of the treaty, three notorious violators of UN resolutions voted against it (Iran, Syria and North Korea). Furthermore, Russia and China – on the top list of arms exporters – abstained, along with 21 other nations.
Yet none of that tops the news today that the U.S. had actually scheduled a transcontinental missile launch test which was scrapped because of the tensions in the Korean Peninsula. So, where is the U.S in all this?
While North Korea clearly carries the blame for the tensions, it is self-defeating for the U.S to pressure other nations against missile technology while at the same time conducting or planning tests of its own. Unless the U.S is presuming to be the police of the world, success in peace efforts is a result of trust and moral credibility.
Comments