Can we forge our swords into plowshares

Résumé En

The long history of the search for bringing the international arms trade under control is, in general, a history of failure. The motivations of the arms suppliers are economic (a desire to earn foreign exchange, to bring costs down by an increase in production, &c.) or political (support friendly nations or local groups) ; those of the arms buyers are obviously to strengthen their exterior or interior security, but sometimes also to prepare aggression on their neighbours. The paper argues in favor of increased international control of the arms trade, together with means to provide alternate ways to control and avoid crises, mainly by negotiation and arbitration. This control could be achieved by setting up a supervisory commission, who could judge whether a given transfer is morally justified. A call is made on the academic institutions to devote studies to the matter of the arms trade and its motivations, to the military levels corresponding to a maximum of security and a minimum of aggressivity, to the economics of disarmament, &c.