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Political Science

Portland State University

Illegal arms transfers

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Illicit Arms Trade: A Social Network Analysis, David Todd Kinsella Mar 2011

The Illicit Arms Trade: A Social Network Analysis, David Todd Kinsella

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

In recent years, researchers have increasingly turned their attention to the proliferation of small arms and light weapons. Small arms are difficult to track and are not the stuff of military parades, but they are immensely destructive. In addition to what is already circulating, a substantial percentage of what is newly produced enters the black market and is destined for conflict zones across the globe. I argue that the illicit trade in small arms shares some important properties with networked forms of organization studied by sociologists. I then employ quantitative methods developed for the study of social networks in an …


Former Soviet Bloc Locales In Africa's Illicit Arms Trade Network, David Todd Kinsella Mar 2011

Former Soviet Bloc Locales In Africa's Illicit Arms Trade Network, David Todd Kinsella

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Small arms and light weapons are the primary cause of death in the violent conflicts raging today, but the small arms trade is difficult to track, and the illicit trade in small arms is doubly so. Nevertheless, information is available and research institutes like the Small Arms Survey and the Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms Transfers are at the forefront of efforts to collect and distribute this information. This paper focuses on the illicit arms trade and draws on a database I am developing, the Illicit Arms Transfer Database, which systematizes information contained in journalistic reports on illicit small arms …


Mapping The Small Arms Trade: Insights From Social Network Analysis, David Todd Kinsella Mar 2004

Mapping The Small Arms Trade: Insights From Social Network Analysis, David Todd Kinsella

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

In recent years, researchers have increasingly turned their attention to the proliferation of small arms, a transnational trade amounting to over $7 billion in value during 2002. Small arms are difficult to track and are not the stuff of military parades, but they are immensely destructive. The trade in small arms should be understood not as a market but as a network, one that shares some important properties with networked forms of organization studied by sociologists. I make this argument and then employ quantitative methods developed for the study of social networks in an effort to show the basic structure …