The Control Arms Campaign: A Case Study of NGO Impacts on International Relations after the Cold War

Research in the field of international agreements on small arms and light weapons (hereafter SALW) has focused mainly on specific aspects of the problem viewed from an international relations perspective, whereas the social movement dimension of the topic has been largely under-researched. Moreover, this research has been almost exclusively done by insiders, either activists or academics, closely connected to the NGO sector. As a result, this perspective may be biased toward overemphasizing the NGO role in these processes. In addition, the majority of these works do not cover more recent events.1 This essay expands und updates previous analyses, taking into account the events of 2006, while also contributing original empirical research from an outside perspective.