Workshop Series on Law and International Relations

PROGRAMS FELLOWSHIPS SSRC GLOBAL PUBLICATIONS BLOGS SSRC INSIDE SITE MAP	SEARCH:
All Global Security & Cooperation Migration The Public Sphere Knowledge Institutions Research Hubs Current Funding Opportunities Online Application Portal All Books Online Essays Items & Issues Quarterly Features All The Immanent Frame Knowledge Rules Making Sense of Darfur Societas Podcast About President Staff Board of Directors Press Releases Employment Internships

PROGRAMS FELLOWSHIPS SSRC GLOBAL PUBLICATIONS BLOGS SSRC INSIDE SITE MAP

SEARCH:

Published on: Jan 04, 2004

February 6-7, 2002: International Law & Small Arms Proliferation

DAY ONE

9:00 AM – Welcome and Introduction—John Tirman

9:15 AM – Morning Sesssion
Chair: Harold Koh, Yale Law

The history of the global effort to regulate small arms
(Click here to view memo)

9:45 AM – Re-Framing the Problem: Availability and the Negative Effects of Small Arms

A typology of availability of small arms: legal transfers, illicit flows and arms brokers
(Click here to view memo)
A typology of effects of small arms use: violent conflict, instability, human rights abuses
(Click here to view memo)
What are the existing relevant legal mechanisms in each case governing:
A) The availability of weapons?
B) The negative effects of weapons use?
—Chandra Sriram, International Peace Academy, New York ( Click here to view memo)

11:15 AM – Tea

11:30 AM – Re-Framing the Problem: The Context of Arms Use

What are the political and economic conditions in which small arms build-ups become a problem?
Discussant: Michael Klare, Hampshire College

1:00 PM – Lunch

2:30 PM – Case Studies: An examination of individual cases in light of the above discussion, demonstrations of small arms as a variable in conflict
Chair: Lora Lumpe, Independent Researcher, Washington DC

West Africa—Napoleon Abdullai, Program for Coordination and Assistance for Security and Development in Africa (ECOWAS), Bamako (Click here to view memo)
Colombia—Ignacio Nazih Richani, Keen University
Tanzania—Jakkie Potgeiter, SaferAfrica, Pretoria
Refugee Camps in Africa—Kathi Austin, The Fund for Peace (Click here to view memo)

3:30 PM – Tea

3:45 PM – Case Studies (2)

Discussion: Can we generalize about the nature of the small arms threat?

5:00 PM – End

_________________________________

DAY TWO

9:00 AM – Overview of Previous Day and Revision of Agenda for Day Two

9:30 AM – Strategies for Action: The existing instruments

Based on the lessons learned from the previous day, how are existing political and legal mechanisms such as UN Programme of Action, and various regional agreements (OAS, ECOWAS, EU, SADC) insufficient?

10:00 AM – Where next? What can we learn from other international efforts to build governance regimes? Three case studies of analogous regimes:
Chair: Peter Spiro, Hofstra Law

The role of evidence in building a case for the Convention on Child Soldiers
Similarities with the Transnational Movement of Hazardous Waste convention, what lessons can be applied to the Small Arms case?
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines and the 'Ottawa Process' as a model

11:00 AM – Tea

11:15 AM – Analogous Regimes (2)

Discussion: What can these cases tell us about the role of data and analysis in the process of regime design and what relevant hypotheses can we extrapolate for the small arms case?

12: 45 PM – Lunch

2:15 PM – Lessons Learned and Further Research

What questions can politico-legal research examine that will help to further the effort to limit the contribution of small arms to conflict?
What questions and hypotheses concerning regime formation arise from this case and can be pursued empirically?

The goal is to produce a list of research projects to be undertaken and a confirmed list of volunteers to conduct the research.
Chair: Kenneth Abbott, Northwestern University

4:30 PM – Closing Remarks, John Tirman, SSRC

4:45 PM – Departures

__________________________

SMALL ARMS WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS & ATTENDEES

Core Group