Topic: Trade in High-Tech Weapons Systems
Country: Liberia
Delegate Name: Tomilola Oyasiji
School: Grand Blanc High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Liberia position papers GLIMUN 2016 committees
Do exporters of high-tech weapons contribute to global instability, or merely take advantage of it? These exporters do contribute to global instability. The countries with many high- tech weapons may export them to countries who can pay the highest price for these weapons. These high paying countries most likely have weapons of their own, but they want to expand on that. This causes an imbalance because the smaller, less influential nations would be left with a scarce amount of high- tech weapons. Liberia is more concerned with the selling of high tech- weapons on an illicit market.
Liberia believes that there should be regulations on these high- tech weapons. There should also be a committee that monitors the frequency in which these weapons enter and leave any given country. The United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNREC) and the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) cooperated to provide technical assistance and training to Liberia on marking and registering small arms and light weapons. This assistance, undertaken in cooperation with the National Commission on Small Arms of Liberia and its Ghanaian counterpart, aimed to assist Liberia in implementing the provisions of Security Council resolution 2190 (2014) by which Liberia is to assume complete security responsibilities by June 2016, including on small arms, and is to register and track arms used by its security forces. Marking and registering governmental weapons is a tool to further prevent the diversion of arms into the illicit market and to promote security. A total of 27 Liberian security sector officers received training on marking, registering and record-keeping of arms, with an emphasis on government-owned weapons. US Army mentoring officers from the Armed Forces of Liberia also participated in the exercise. The Liberian National Commission also received a weapons registration software from its colleague in Ghana. During the practical exercise of the training, 40 weapons collected during the Liberian Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) program were marked, registered and destroyed.
UNREC and UNMIL intend to further cooperate to assist Liberia in fully engaging with the control of small arms and light weapons in its territory. By registering the high- tech weapons a nation can keep a close eye on the number of weapons being exported out of and imported into that given country. This should be done so that a balance can be reached within countries.
Purchasing entities are not victims. They are just using their resources for their own good. Even if there were a regulation committee on these weapons, Liberia believes that many countries would still figure out a way to receive their weapons. The trade in high-tech weapons is not meaningfully distinct from trade in more conventional munitions. Although you may be trading different types of weapons, they are still both weapons either way. The high- tech weapons would probably have a bigger effect on a society’s stability/ economy than small weapons (such as handguns).
Liberia proposes that there be a committee or advisory that keeps an eye on the number of registered weapons in a country. We as a nation did this, and it was a very efficient way of maintaining the economic stability. This is something the committee should consider because the trade will not be illegalized. Also these regulations will mostly be targeted towards the illicit trading of these weapons.
