Arms Control and CBM as Tools for Disarmament and Development in Sierra Leone

The Role Of Arms Control And Confidence-Building Measures As Tools For Disarmament And Development In Sierra Leone
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The Role Of Arms Control And Confidence-Building Measures As Tools For Disarmament And Development In Sierra Leone
Introduction
Arms control refers to the various structures that governments or authorities have put in place to centralize oversight of different means of violence. There have been various changes like the control on types of weapons, including the forms of arms control. Confidence-building measures are progressively becoming essential when addressing various disarmament challenges that entail efforts to control small arms alongside light weapons. The confidence-building measures (CBMs) influence the process of trust-building, assurance of stability alongside required security that reduces violent conflict. Consequently, it enhances efforts towards the development of the region. The CBMs can also be applicable in reducing heightened tension that helps avert possible military conflicts. This requires tools such as communication, transparency, constraining factors, and measures appropriate for verification measures. Therefore, the elaborate definition of CBMs encompasses the aspect of meeting the various changing security environment.[Malam, Bashir. "Small arms and light weapons proliferation and its implication for West African regional security." International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 4, no. 8 (2014): 260-269] [Ibid]
Global perspective
The periodization of global development resulted in the Western lens manifestation, which provided importance to the various Cold War categories, globalization, colonialism, decolonization reform. Various scholars, alongside practitioners, argue concerning the shift witnessed in the arms control measures post-cold war. Previously, the aspect of dominance as exercised by the super-power in arms control alongside concerns on mass destruction weapons provides a new set of programs as structured around a global North and a global South divide. In this case, the weapons transferred to conflict regions tend to receive more attention. Subsequently, the control of arms tends to disappear gradually from the corridors of essential foreign and security policy debate. It contributes quite often towards development alongside humanitarian policies that are helpful.[Lever, Paul. "The Cold War: the golden age of arms control." Cold War History 14, no. 4 (2014): 501-513.]
Further, there has also been a shift towards high-technology "strategic weapons' towards low-technology 'conflict weapons.' The level of influence of small arms concerning conflict is better understood, and the various weapons are frequently considered the typical challenge on sustainable development alongside peace. Notably, the scholars' organizations forming global relations conducted the research to understand arms control existence and functions comprehensively, how it differs from disarmament, analyzing various efforts shown up, and finally identifying several issues causing its nullification.[Allouche, Jeremy.]
Regional perspective
Several efforts are being applied in Africa to develop and reduce the availability of small arms and light weapons. For instance, in Mozambique, 'Operation Rachel' ensured South Africa and Mozambique's cooperation towards locating and destroying arms. The program identifies caches that provide weapons for criminal activities within these territories. The 'Operation Rachel' has, to-date, collected and destroyed more than 28,000 weapons alongside 4 million rounds of ammunition. In Southern Africa, 'Operation Qeto' working within the regional partners to destroy stocks of surplus weapons in Lesotho. In this case, approximately 3,500 weapons alongside assorted equipment were destroyed upon a joint initiative.[Maclean, Mairi, Charles Harvey, and Stewart R. Clegg. "Organization theory in business and management history: Present status and future prospects." Business History Review 91, no. 3 (2017): 457-481.]
Sierra Leone perspective
The planning of DDR in Sierra Leone identifies the need for building the confidence level for both warring parties within the process of disarmament. There is a high need for recovering weapons outside the formal disarmament process. In Sierra Leone, there has been the initiation of Community Arms Collection alongside Destruction Program with the police's help that collects weapons from civilians who happen to be excluded from the DDR program. These focus on weapons such as hunting rifles excluded from the DDR process. In this exercise, approximately 9,600 weapons, including 17,000 rounds of ammunition.[Allouche, Jeremy. "Politics, exit strategy and political settlement in Sierra Leone: a critical analysis of a laboratory experiment (1991–2015)." Conflict, Security & Development 17, no. 3 (2017): 225-246.]
Statement of the problem
Managing small arms and light weapons provides a crucial process in post-conflict peace-building that facilitates the disarmament process. In the post-violence era within a region, there is always a significant presence of small and light weapons remaining in warring forces alongside civilians. Such flow of illicit arms influences an atmosphere of insecurity that could easily interfere with development processes. There have been extensive donor programs alongside studies of the African security sector reform alongside disarmament, demobilization, and integration initiatives, including conflict management alongside peacekeeping. The arms control systems have not been adequately captured in most of the research. The policy perspective frames arms control as a technical alongside marginalized issue instead of considering the issue as a central concern within the human rights domain.[Ibid]
Nevertheless, there is the frequency in the aspect of lack of arms control within Africa and various assumptions made regarding the various implications on African security as brought by lack of arms control. This has resulted in constant conflicts between groups. Such scenarios require establishing programs that relate the collection of weapons from different community groups to the growth of projects by global organizations such as the UN Development Program.[Ibid]
Research Questions
* How do arms control measures influence disarmament and development in Sierra Leone?
* What impact do confidence-building measures have on the disarmament process and development in Sierra Leone
Research Objective
To examine the impact of arms control measures and confidence-building in facilitating development and disarmament within a region in the post-violence peace-building process.
Literature Review
There is a range of disarmament procedures related to the CBM that is crucial in the development alongside reinforcement of processes that prevent the spread of weapons. Such processes influence reduction in the level of tensions between states. In such a case, this study focuses on how CBMs relate to development within a region post-conflict. The African small arms control practices have experienced significant changes over time. This study seeks to examine the rationale behind the role arms control alongside confidence-building lay in influencing the development of the region, in this case, Sierra-Leone. The African continent has for a long time portrayed failure and danger owing to widespread conflict. Notably, before developing various control practices, some processes pertain to diffusion alongside small arms' proliferation across Africa. Such activities have led to significant humanitarian as well as political consequences. Contrary to the fact that the African continent is limited in small arms production, the region appears to be flooded with small arms.[Malam, Bashir. "Small arms and light weapons proliferation and its implication for West African regional security." International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 4, no. 8 (2014): 260-269.]
The African continent has taken center stage in the international discussion on the proliferation of small arms. For a long time, the continent's population carried the burden associated with armed conflicts since the Cold War. Statistically, the population's proportion of deaths resulting from conflicts estimates at 88% within the period 1990 – 2007, with such exposure to such a high level of conflict across the rest of the world remaining limited. However, there exist significant differences like conflict across Central, East Africa, West Africa, and the Horn of Africa. There is a lack of comprehensive data on small arms violence in Africa since there are comparative terms in the high rates of armed violence. Such proliferation of small arms has presented a big challenge to the various authority in an extraordinary way due to their devastating violent consequences.[Annan, Nancy. "Violent conflicts and civil strife in West Africa: causes, challenges and prospects." Stability: International Journal of Security and Development 3, no. 1 (2014).]
Many scholarly articles focus on state-building issues, sovereignty alongside state failure in the African continent, and not necessarily on arms control issues. The concept of small arms control provides some essentiality to all the state processes since it influences the creation of a monopoly on arms' legitimate use. There is limited information on the arms control practices in Africa.[Ibid]
The antagonistic nations have coerced collaborations in endeavors of limiting the use of weapons at the international level. The arms control concept reinforces these proceedings where firearms are restricted to harmonize the nations by eradicating arising conflicts that emerge from ...