Example #5: Why the U.N.'s Arms Trade Treaty Is a Bad Idea

Another Day, Another Arms-Trade Scandal, Another Excuse for a Treaty, Contentions, October 28, 2009. "The story by now should be wearily familiar. Last week France was caught supplying arms to the dictatorial regime in Guinea, which then used them to brutally suppress protesters. This time, it’s Britain. Amnesty International UK asserts that Guinea also used a Mamba armored personnel-carrier that it bought from a South African subsidiary of a UK-based company. Amnesty International UK’s arms programme director, Oliver Sprague, followed with the predictable call . . . ."

Example #4: Why the U.N.'s Arms Trade Treaty Is a Bad Idea

The Sweet, Sweet Mirage of Consensus, Contentions, October 21, 2009. "Late last week, the Obama administration did what I feared it would do: It endorsed the UN’s Arms Trade Treaty negotiations. The goal is to craft a treaty negotiated and ready for signature by 2012 that would impose standards on the entire conventional arms trade. The projected treaty’s scope is vast."