October 9, 2024.
The issue of emerging technologies and the potential challenges they pose has been on the international small arms and light weapons (SALW) control agenda for over a decade, with first reports of successfully manufactured 3D polymer weapons dating back to 2011-2013. Yet the international community’s steps towards addressing these challenges as well as exploring their potential benefits remain limited.
The United Nations Programme of Action on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (UN PoA) committed UN Member States in 2001 to exercise effective control over the production, export, import, transit, or retransfer of SALW as a means of preventing their illegal manufacture, illicit trafficking, and diversion to unauthorized recipients.
This briefing paper is aimed at a wide readership that includes civil society advocates of SALW control to promote understanding and to help address the issue of new and emerging technologies as they relate to the control of the SALW production, trade, stockpiling, and uses. First, it sets the scene for the discussion by describing central concepts that are used when referring to technological developments in the SALW field. It then highlights some of the main challenges and opportunities that the rapid development of technologies has brought to SALW control and provides an overview of measures and actions taken at the international level to address these challenges, both by governments and by civil society organizations (CSOs). Finally, the paper presents some recommendations for States, international organizations, civil society and industry, about possible next steps in improving the control of SALW affected by new technologies.