One Very Bad Guy Posted by David Shorr

Some very good news, for a change. The Times has just reported the arrest of notorious international arms dealer Victor Bout in Thailand. His activities in supplying some of the world's most vicious conflicts are well know -- as shown in these profiles in the Times Magazine and Foreign Policy. We often forget what a deadly global problem small arms represent. Here is a journal article by Rachel Stohl of Center for Defense Information, a leading analyst on the issue. And here is the web site of the Internatioanl Action Network on Small Arms, the leading global advocacy group.

Comments

[David Tomlin]

I don't follow the logic.

Denying arms to both sides of a conflict helps the side which happens to already to be better armed. It doesn't necessarily make the conflict shorter or less lethal.

[David Shorr]

The point isn't to keep weapons out of everyone's hands. The point is to keep them out of the hands of groups who aren't really combatants in any meaningful sense but really just predatory gangs that use them to rape and pillage. So yes, I believe that shutting down people like Bout will contribute toward shrinking shadowy ungoverned spaces and protect ordinary people from being ruled by brute and capricious force. It's one of the ways we have to get away from a Hobbesian world.