Targeting Armed Violence: Implications of Localized Efforts to Control Small Arms Proliferation and Misuse in the Former Yugoslavia.
Chankin-Gould, Sarah.
2015
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Abstract: Small arms and light weapons are ubiquitous weapons of war. Their
influence is felt daily around the world and they have increasingly garnered international
attention. Concurrent with efforts to develop broad-based international regimes, a
bottom-up approach has emerged that is focused on localized armed violence reduction
through the means of addressing a myriad of small arms problems ... read more(e.g., DDR, civilian
weapons collection and destruction, stockpile management, legislative reform and
enforcement, and public education). This dissertation explores the role and effectiveness
of these localized aid efforts by examining the following underlying questions: How can we
evaluate success of small arms aid? What are the geographically limited initiatives trying
to address? Are they succeeding? Are they sufficient? And how are they affected by the SALW
policy environment? My research begins by examining the extent to which an international
regime on small arms has and has not developed since the 2001 UN Programme of Action. It
then engages in focused case studies of international assistance programs run by UNDP that
are addressing localized small arms problems in the former Yugoslavia--in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Croatia, and Kosovo. In assessing the cases, I develop a framework of criteria
to evaluate effectiveness, including: the extent to which a robust policy and legal
framework has been developed; the extent to which the other proximate goals of the program
have been achieved; the extent to which local capacity has been developed (the
sustainability of the intervention); the extent to which the broader societal context has
changed concurrent with the intervention; and the extent to which security and perceptions
of security have changed. I find that these localized small arms control efforts are
engaging in important work, and are profoundly influenced by the broader policy
environment. In fact, the programs are helping to bring local laws and policies in line
with European and international regimes on SALW. These broader regimes lack an enforcement
mechanism, yet they are being actualized, at least in the former Yugoslavia, via targeted
international aid. I conclude with a series of recommendations for policy and future
research.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 2015.
Submitted to the Dept. of Diplomacy, History, and Politics.
Advisor: Robert Pfaltzgraff, Jr..
Committee: Richard Shultz, and William Martel.
Keywords: International relations, and Regional studies.read less - ID:
- sb397m61p
- Component ID:
- tufts:21377
- To Cite:
- TARC Citation Guide EndNote
