Publication details
Shying Away From The Tipping Point? Responsibility Meta-Norm Dynamics In Arms Trade – Current Interest Conflicts Of Critical States.
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| Year of publication | 2016 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Responsible arms trade has become a much discussed norm in the making. Akin to norms established within arms control decades or years ago, the conflict of interests versus norms bears a strong impact on the development dynamics of the responsibility meta-norm. The key actors studied in the presented text are major norm agents consisting of critical states within the P5. It is argued here that policies applied by these countries have recently stifled or even reversed the norm dynamics of responsibility and thus steered the international community further from the tipping point necessary for general norm habitualization and later internalization. The presented research focuses on four constitutive areas of activities conducted by critical states to support this hypothesis. They concern the positions and agency in the long heralded Arms Trade Treaty as an anticipated regime gateway for the arms trade responsibility norm; the upheld imposition patterns of UN arms embargoes; the unaltered or increased flow of arms to oppressive regimes; and the current character of the modern grey market trade to non-state actors. The article finds that together, the interest manifestations within these areas represent a sufficient blocking coalition for the prevention of arms trade responsibility norm progress. These findings provide new impetus for the post-ATT arms trade debate. |