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Proliferation of Small Arms and its impact on India

2006-03-27 The end of the Cold War in the first years of the 1990s raised hopes that a peace dividend would accrue the world over with the threat of inter-state wars and nuclear conflict having receded.

However, as history has shown, that war is a recurrent feature in mankind. A new threat emerged now. Inter-state conflicts now got replaced by an increasing intensity of intra-state conflicts occurring within states themselves.

In these intra-state conflicts generated by religious, ethnic or separatist causes the obvious choice and the compulsions of the nature of conflict i.e. asymmetric warfare, was small arms and light weapons.

The normal debate in the strategic community in terms of "Weapons of Mass Destruction" gets focused on nuclear weapons and chemical and biological weapons. But when was the last time one heard of casualties inflicted by nuclear weapons?

It is seldom realised that today the real "Weapons of Mass Destruction" are small arms and light weapons (SALWs) which have inflicted thousands of casualties in the present day intra-state conflicts.

In global terms, the proliferation of small arms is more marked in South East Asia and South Asia.

In comparative terms between the two, South Asia stands out more starkly in terms of small arms proliferation and also the thousands of casualties inflicted by them. Possibly, the Middle East and specifically Iraq would take over this distinction.

In addition, the severe effects on the peace and stability of South Asia are immeasurable. Small arms and light weapons are the means which generate widespread terrorism against India by cross-border state sponsored terrorism and proxy war by Pakistan.

South Asia

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