West Africa

Because of the diversity of its resources and its geostrategic location, West Africa is at the heart of various tensions and claims, coming from regional powers or from powers which do not belong to the sub-region. Throughout the 1990s’, the sub-region was in the grip of instability which led to an arc of crisis involving by extension a range of countries from Liberia to Sierra Leone, from Guinea to the Ivory Coast, etc. These crises linked with the internal factors specific to these states are also signs of an adjustment from the West-African societies to the challenges of globalisation and to an international evolving context...

Nowadays, more than 875 million small arms and light weapons (SALW) are scattered all over the world. In Africa alone, there are about 100 million arms, with all the consequences that it entails: 90% of the war victims – the majority being women and children - are killed by small arms. These weapons are still overabundant, which has adverse and destabilising effects on development. Their availability leads indeed to an ever-growing violent criminality often mixed up with drug trafficking...

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Arms brokering means essentially facilitating and negotiating transactions for a material compensation; it is usually unavoidable in numerous international arms transfers and also absolutely legal. However, if there is no legal framework or not enough controls, untrustworthy brokers (or intermediaries) can violate arms embargos and get round the arms exportation policies of the States they work in with impunity. Since the end of the 1990s’, the United Nations and NGOs have drawn more and more reports making the brokers responsible for the transfers of illicit or undesirable arms towards violent conflict zones (Rwanda, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, …). As a matter of fact, these brokers were and still are exploiting the regulatory gaps on brokering. Several instruments, conceived by the United Nations or the European Union, commit or encourage the States to adopt national controls of these activities.

Arms production and transfers

GRIP is constantly monitoring and analysing the global military expenditure, the main weapons producers and the international transfers of conventional weapons. In this context, a special attention has been paid to the trade in weapons in Belgium and the development of the arms industry in this country.

Possession of firearms by civilians

Through its research on European regulations and Belgian legislation on possession and legal trade in arms, GRIP wants to improve their enforcement and to make the public aware of the necessity of preserving the balance between permission and restriction. GRIP takes part in the “Commission consultative des armes” (Advisory Committee on Arms). 

Arms Industry

Marking and Tracing

Tracing involves a systematic monitoring of the path followed by arms and ammunitions, from the manufacturer to the end user. It is a unique tool to identify a weapon, its source and its transfers; the goal is to find who illicitly produced it and who is responsible for its illicit transfer or diversion.  There are two necessary conditions for an effective tracing mechanism: on the one hand, the marking of the inscriptions enabling to identify a weapon or ammunitions, and, on the other hand, the listing of their transfers in adequate national/regional registers by the relevant actors... 

Ammunitions

Unlike weapons, ammunitions are for a single-use only.  Without ammunitions, weapons are not really useful. Because they are ephemeral and essential, they are sought-after in war, tensions or criminality zones. Their availability can have an impact on the evolution and the outcome of a conflict.  Despite these facts, it is clear that States do not care as much about ammunitions as they do about weapons. When they are not totally excluded from the international and regional SALW instruments, their controls are barely mentioned.  

Peace and Security in Asia-Pacific

The rise of Asia is one of the most important developments of the 21^st century. It confers on the Asian continent and its Pacific shores a renewed importance in the current reconfiguration of global power relations.

Conflict prevention and Crisis management

In view of both the crises which spread on the African continent (e.g. the Sahelian crisis) and sometimes escalate (Central Africa), and the conflict situations which multiply and mutate, an in-depth analysis of the roots of these various crises has to be done. Crises have often multiple reasons - the numerous and different actors, the diverging interests of one another. Through its research, GRIP wants to comprehend the dynamics of the conflicts and to identify the international, regional or local initiatives and strategies which could bring about peace...

Natural Resources and Conflicts

Natural resources can be the root of a conflict, finance it, and even burden its resolution. More generally, environment is at the same time a silent victim and an aggravating factor in armed conflicts, sometimes even a catalyst. Yet, resources management policies, as environmental policies, can also contribute to the country’s stability and prosperity. Human environmental and natural resources management is a window to a socio-economic and political dimension of the conflicts. This theme is a way to tackle a range of initiatives and processes aiming at establishing a lasting peace in areas of instability...  

Arms Trade Treaty

As dubious practices in the fields of trade in arms and conventional military equipment were revealed throughout the 1980s’- especially during the first Gulf war, international reflection on the necessity of multilateral agreements in order to control arms transfers between States was encouraged. First issued in 1995 as a Code of Conduct on international arms transfers, the idea of a legally binding international instrument was then supported by the civil society and gradually backed up by an increasing number of States. In the following years, a real movement in favour of a more fair trade in arms emerged. In 2006, the UN addressed this problem by putting the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) issue on its agenda. The General Assembly launched the still on-going official negotiations on the treaty at the end of 2009...