Small Arms Survey Podcasts

The Small Arms Survey 2015: Weapons and the World explores the theme of weapons and the environment, as well as offering case studies on a range of aspects of small arms and armed violence. In the first of this two-episode podcast, Senior Researcher Khristopher Carlson and Yearbook Coordinator Glenn McDonald discuss five of the book's chapters, covering weapons and the environment, trade in weapons, and measures to regulate and control small arms.

The second part of the two-part podcast discussing the Small Arms Survey's engagement in measuring SDG Goal 16, which focuses on peaceful and inclusive societies, access to justice, and accountable institutions. This episode examines SDG Target 16.4, which calls for a significant reduction in illicit arms flows. Beyond acknowledging the link between illicit weapons, armed violence, and insecurity, it is crucial to identify ways of measuring and understanding the illicit arms trade. Senior Researcher Glenn McDonald provides a comprehensive account of how this can be achieved in the framework of Goal 16. The Small Arms Survey has recently published a Research Note on the topic, 'Reducing Illicit Arms Flows and the New Development Agenda'. The Global Burden of Armed Violence 2015: Every Body Counts, which offers a wealth of data relevant to security and the post-2015 sustainable development framework, is due for release on 11 May 2015.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a new proposed framework to come into effect after the Millennium Development Goals. Amongst them, Goal 16 focuses on peaceful and inclusive societies, access to justice, and accountable institutions. This goal is a significant step towards recognizing that preventing and reducing violence is essential for development. In the first part of this two-episode podcast Small Arms Survey experts explain how the Global Burden of Armed Violence (GBAV) initiative offers useful methodology for implementing SDG Target 16.1, which calls for measurable reductions in armed violence. Research Director Anna Alvazzi del Frate, Senior Researcher and Coordinator of the Secretariat of the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development Luigi De Martino, and Researcher Irene Pavesi discuss the GBAV initiative, its context, and its relevance to SDG Goal 16. For further reading see Note 49 Every Body Counts: Measuring Violent Deaths, March 2015. Research Note No. 49, Armed Violence

In September 2014, in Istanbul, the Small Arms Survey held a weapons identification workshop for journalists reporting from conflict areas. Meeting the need for precise contextual information on the weapons used in conflict, and their origins, Small Arms Survey researchers introduced journalists to weapons identification techniques and practical considerations. By encouraging closer collaboration between journalists, researchers, and other specialists, the Survey contributes to better a understanding of the dynamics of weapons and conflict. In this episode project coordinator Benjamin King and consultant Damien Spleeters report on how the workshop unfolded, and announce plans for further action in this area.

The dialogue continues on developments in weapons technology and the challenges they present for arms control. Benjamin King and Glenn McDonald explain how the modular design of weapons systems complicates weapons marking, record -keeping, and tracing. They also examine the issues raised by the conversion of replica firearms into viable weapons; and they consider how new weapons technology presents opportunities for improved stockpile management. This is the second part of a two-part podcast that covers a series of discussion papers being presented in October 2014 at the UN First Committee on Disarmament and International Security.

New developments in small arms manufacturing, technology, and design pose important challenges for weapons marking, record keeping, and tracing. The Small Arms Survey has drafted a series of discussion papers to be presented at the UN First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in October 2014. These papers, which are due for public release later in the year as chapters in an Occasional Paper, cover a range of subjects: the additive manufacturing (also known as 3D printing) of small arms; the use of new polymers; modular weapons design; smart technologies; and the conversion of replica firearms to fully functioning firearms. In the first installment of this podcast, series editors Benjamin King and Glenn McDonald talk to us about the need for arms control policies that take these developments into account, with a detailed discussion of new polymers and additive manufacturing.

Contrary to the impression given by Hollywood's depictions, most firearms seized from drug traffickers and gang members in the United States are handguns, not automatic rifles or sub-machine guns. In this podcast, senior researcher Matt Schroeder highlights and explains key findings from his analysis of more than 140,000 records on firearms seized from criminals in eight US cities. These findings were released this summer as a chapter in Small Arms Survey 2014: Women and Guns.

Around 875 million firearms are in circulation worldwide, with three-quarters of these in civilian hands, according to Small Arms Survey estimates. These widely-cited calculations are the result of an ongoing programme on inventories and stockpiles—started over a decade ago—to gather comprehensive data on the distribution of small arms and light weapons around the world. The programme has developed an ever larger pool of information that was initially scarce and unsystematic, but now can provide increasingly accurate and up-to-date knowledge of small arms and light weapon holdings. In this podcast, Senior Consultant Aaron Karp and Researcher Hannah Dönges discuss the challenges, achievements, and future directions of this initiative.

Unplanned explosions at munitions sites (UEMS) are a significant safety concern for governments and a major security challenge for the international community. The Small Arms Survey has documented more than 500 such incidents in 100 countries over the 35-year period from 1979 to 2013. The Handbook 'Unplanned Explosions at Munitions Sites (UEMS): Excess Stockpiles as Liabilities rather than Assets', published in June 2014, is a reference and training tool that provides contextual information and analysis .useful for policy makers, programmers, and practitioners addressing stockpile management and surplus destruction concerns. In this podcast, Eric Berman, Small Arms Survey Managing Director and co-editor of the Handbook, provides insights into the data it presents, outlines the Handbook's utility, and notes future plans for its development.

The Small Arms Survey's Human Security Baseline Assessment (HSBA) for Sudan and South Sudan has documented armed conflict dynamics in the two countries since 2006. In a May 2014 interview, HSBA consultant Joshua Craze, author of several HSBA reports, describes recent developments in South Sudan's political and humanitarian crisis, which has continued to evolve since December 2013. The second part of this two-part podcast, based on a May 2014 interview with HSBA consultant Joshua Craze, describes the current military situation in South Sudan and outlines possible scenarios for South Sudan's future. For an extended version of the interview and its transcript, please visit www.smallarmssurveysudan.org.

The Small Arms Survey's Human Security Baseline Assessment (HSBA) for Sudan and South Sudan has documented armed conflict dynamics in the two countries since 2006. In a May 2014 interview, HSBA consultant Joshua Craze, author of several HSBA reports, describes recent developments in South Sudan's political and humanitarian crisis, which has continued to evolve since December 2013. In the first part of the interview, he describes the current crisis and the many competing stakeholders and claims; the second part of the interview, to follow, outlines possible scenarios for the country's future. For an extended version of the interview and its transcript, please visit www.smallarmssurveysudan.org.

Man-portable air defence systems--MANPADS--are lightweight, usually shoulder-launched, surface-to-air missiles. These weapons systems have proliferated in conflict zones, and their widespread acquisition by non-state armed groups has attracted attention and caused disquiet amongst the security sector. In this podcast the Small Arms Survey's Matt Schroeder discusses the use of MANPADS and the challenges they present to the research community and to security providers.

Small Arms Survey’s Working Paper On the Edge? Trafficking and Insecurity at the Tunisian–Libyan Border examines the effects of the Libyan armed conflict and its aftermath on the security situation in Tunisia. Based on primary field research conducted in the Jefara region, which borders Libya, the study delves into the complex interactions between actors and processes, in a politically and economically turbulent region. In this podcast Dr. Moncef Kartas, the report author and coordinator of the Security Assessment In North Africa (SANA) project, discusses the study's scope and the policy implications of its findings.

In the second installment of this two-part podcast discussing the book Controlling Small Arms: Consolidation, Innovation and Relevance in Research and Policy, chapter authors talk about the gains made in small arms control during fifteen years of research, policy and advocacy efforts. They draw attention to several current challenges, and map out some of the ways forward for research and action.

Controlling Small Arms: Consolidation, Innovation and Relevance in Research and Policy is a new book from the Small Arms Survey, published by Routledge, which maps out the evolution of our knowledge on small arms issues, and discusses practical implementation of programmes and processes, both at the national level and globally. The two-part podcast brings together some of the chapter authors to reflect on 15 years of research and policy development in the area of small arms research and policies. In this first installment, chapter authors discuss the interaction between research and policy, describing the community involved in small arms issues, and their distinct perspectives.

The Human Security Baseline Assessment for Sudan and South Sudan (HSBA) is a multi-year project of the Small Arms Survey. The HSBA project was established in 2005 in the wake of the comprehensive peace agreement between the government of Sudan and the Sudan’s People Liberation Movement, which put an end to 20 years of civil strife, in order to gauge the security situation and provide information on small arms and security issues. The project serves to support violence reduction initiatives through its research and dissemination of salient information. Findings are regularly released as Issue Briefs, Working Papers, and online Facts & Figures reports. In this podcast HSBA series editor Emile Lebrun and HSBA project coordinator Jonah Leff discuss the project and some of its findings.

The Regional Approach to Stockpile Reduction (RASR) initiative encourages nine affected South-east European governments to develop a pro-active, coordinated, regional approach to secure and destroy excess stockpiles. The RASR initiative's aim is to prevent disastrous explosions and misuse of conventional weapons and munitions. The Small Arms Survey has provided support to its activities since its creation, by maintaining the RASR website, participating in workshops, and carrying out essential research. In this podcast the Small Arms Survey's Jovana Carapic and Pierre Gobinet explain the policy-relevant link between Survey research related to the RASR initiative and a recent study on the ammunition demilitarization industry.

Each year the Small Arms Survey yearbook presents several chapters that update specific recurring themes. In the second instalment of the podcast on this year's edition, Small Arms Survey 2013: Everyday Dangers, Yearbook Coordinator Glenn McDonald introduces the chapters on international regulation of small arms, demilitarization, and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Senior Researcher Nicolas Florquin provides updates on the Survey’s multi-year study on illicit weapons and ammunition markets, and the Transparency Barometer, which monitors how states report on small arms transfers.

The findings of the Small Arms Survey 2013: Everyday Dangers were presented in New York on 21 October 2013 at the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations, on the first day of the 68th session of the United Nations First Committee, on Disarmament and International Security. The Small Arms Survey 2013, launched in July in Geneva, focuses on small arms and armed violence outside war zones. In this first instalment of a two-part episode on the flagship publication, Research Director Anna Alvazzi del Frate and Senior Researcher Nicolas Florquin discuss the yearbook's central themes. A second instalment will offer insights into the Small Arms Survey yearbook's recurring topics.

This two-part podcast is based on interviews with participants at the Expert Meeting on armed violence observatories and monitoring systems held on 26-28 June 2013 by the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development, the Small Arms Survey, and the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform. The first set of interviews looked at why armed violence monitoring systems are needed and how they work. The second installment of the podcast brings testimonies on the challenges of using data gathered by armed violence observatories to build policy action. Discussing these issues are Geneva Declaration Project Coordinator Luigi De Martino, UNDP Sudan Max Halty, ISS Pretoria’s Crime and Justice Hub Manager Lizette Lancaster, and criminologist Yann-Cedric Quéro, from the Université of Montréal.