International Arms Control Policy Implementation Problems And Small Arms Proliferation In The Niger Delta

ABSTRACT

The post-Cold War saw the emergence of small arms control treaties as a major framework for

promoting global peace and security. However, the implementation of some of these instruments

has to date proven ineffective and, thus, a central issue in scholarly debates on Small Arms and

Light Weapons (SALW) control. SALW continued to flow to areas of conflict, and to non-state

armed groups around the world. Extant literature suggested that structural imbalance in

international configurations of power and the triumph of the market over human rights and

collective security on the side of states, and arms trafficking by non-state actors, were key

challenges to effective implementation of SALW control policies. While these studies were

important, the relationship to SALW proliferation in the Niger Delta has rarely attracted

scholarly attention. This study, therefore, addressed three key questions. Does the intersection of

politics and economics undermine the effective implementation of arms control policies and

engender SALW proliferation in the Niger Delta? How does unlawful trafficking for economic

and socio-political motivations by non-state actors weaken the implementation of small arms

control policies and influence arms proliferation in the Niger Delta? Is there any relationship

between Nigeria’s weak commitment to the implementation of the humanitarian goals of

international small arms control policies and SALW proliferation in the Niger Delta? Adopting

the qualitative case study research method for data collection and interpretation, and situating the

analysis within theoretical framework of post-internationalism, it argued that the political

economy of small arms control premised on material gains and state survival rather than human

security engendered arms proliferation in the Niger Delta. Consequently, the study recommended

that constructive engagement with the core arms supplier states and other foreign powers by the

Nigerian government is required to stem the proliferation of SALW in the Niger Delta.

Keywords: Small Arms, Arms Proliferation, Arms Trafficking, Arms Control, Non-state Actors,

Economics, Politics, Niger Delta