Constructing Regional Security: The Role of Arms Transfers, Arms Control, and Reassurance

In this book William Durch examines conventional weapons proliferation since World War II, the role of arms transfers in fueling regional conflict, and prospects for curbing the global arms trade. Noting that supply side arms control efforts, which seek to constrain the companies and countries that produce and distribute major conventional weapons, have a poor international track record, Durch argues for a broader approach that tries to get at the demand side of the equation. Addressing the political and regional dynamics that impel arms acquisitions, he looks at how arms control might be combined with confidence and security-building measures to contain demand, and how value-based arms trade control measures like 'codes of conduct' could be implemented in stepwise fashion consistent with US national interests in regional stability.

Table of Contents:
Elements of the Arms Trade and Patterns of Proliferation Arms Transfers and Regional Security Getting Down to Cases Assessing Supply Side Arms Control Regional Measures to Reduce Demand for Armaments Conclusions and Implications for US Policy Appendices: Mapping Security Complexes; The Arms Transfer Data Set; Conflict Scaling and Path Analysis

About the Author :
WILLIAM J. DURCH is a senior associate at the Henry L. Stimson Center in Washington D.C. He is the author of The Evolution of UN Peacekeeping (SMP, 1993) and UN Peacekeeping, American Policy and the Uncivil Wars of the 1990s (SMP, 1996).

Review :
'With his customary meticulous research and thoughtfulness, William Durch has tackled a difficult and important subject. This book is a significant addition to the literature on the international arms trade and efforts to control it. Durch provides hard-headed assessments of past approaches and intelligent discussion of how more progress toward restraint may be achieved in the future.' - Steven Miller, Director of the International Security Program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University 'Many pundits offer vague generalizations about the relationship between the arms trade and war and peace. William Durch does us all a huge favor by putting forth clear arguments and testing them against the best statistical and case evidence. This is security policy research of the highest calibre, sensitive to political realities, but constantly looking for workable solutions. In an era when civil wars spill over national boundaries and exacerbate national rivalries, his emphasis on regional regimes to control the arms trade is right on the mark.' - Stephen John Stedman, Senior Research Scholar, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University 'Bill Durch has written a superb book on one of the most critical problems in the world today - regional security. His main argument - that traditional supply-side arms control approaches have to be complemented by demand-side measures that address the security needs of regional actors - is innovative, compelling, and important. This book is destined to become a landmark study in the fields of regional security and arms control. One hopes that it will be widely read by scholars and policymakers alike.' - Michael E. Brown. Director of Research, National Security Studies Program, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University