Arms and Ethnic Conflict

Arms and Ethnic Conflict is an extremely topical book. It presents a wealth of information on the crucial impact of arms in ongoing conflicts. It is important to know, and politically highly relevant, that the availability of arms is neither necessary nor sufficient to start or escalate a war, but that mounting arms availability appears to carry away political decision makers in a conflict. -- Herbert Wulf, Bonn International Center for Conversion
This is the first full-length systematic study of the relationships between arms flows and the outbreak, progression, and outcomes of contemporary ethnic conflicts, and also the first to inject arms export controls into the entire spectrum of conflict prevention, management, resolution, and post-war reconstruction and peace-building. It will provide powerful ammunition to advocates of arms transfer restraint. Its policy recommendations should be taken seriously by all concerned governments and implemented wherever possible. -- Joseph Smaldone, former director of the U.S. State Department's Office of Export Control and Conventional Arms Nonproliferation Policy
John Sislin and Frederic S. Pearson have written a fine book that addresses a complex and understudies issue: the role of arms in ethnic conflict. Arms and Ethnic Conflict is a very good book that is judicious in its use of data, cautious in its claims, and of relevance to policymakers as well as scholars.... * American Political Science Review *
Sislin and Pearson dissect incisively the many ways in which the stocks and supply of arms affect the onset, course, and outcomes of ethnic warfare. Efforts to establish an international regime regulating the flow of arms to countries in crisis are thus far weak and wildly inconsistent, but the authors document just enough instances of partial success to justify redoubled efforts. First and last steps are clear and feasible. The first is to monitor and publicize stocks and flows of arms, light arms most of all, in bad neighborhoods. The last is to provide international incentives and guarantees for decommissioning arms and armies, an essential step in civil war settlement. -- Ted Robert Gurr, University of Maryland
John Sislin and Frederic S. Pearson have written a fine book that addresses a complex and understudies issue: the role of arms in ethnic conflict. Arms and Ethnic Conflict is a very good book that is judicious in its use of data, cautious in its claims, and of relevance to policymakers as well as scholars. * American Political Science Review *