Topic: Trade in High-Tech Weapons Systems
Country: Spain
Delegate Name: Noah Crampton
School: Forest Hills Northern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Spain position papers GLIMUN 2016 committees
In regard to revolutions in areas of tyrannical governments, the arms trade plays an important role in the course of these civilian rebellions against non-peaceful dictatorships and military states. Countries that may not be directly involved in a military conflict still have the power to influence the course of these conflicts through the trade of high tech weapons systems. These weapons systems have immense power, and can aid otherwise powerless peoples in achieving revolution, as well as vice versa. An even larger problem is when groups or countries receiving high tech weapons systems find themselves in situations of defeat during combat, this can cause weaponry to fall into the wrong hands, giving non-peaceful peoples more power and leverage in the spread of tyranny.
A primary goal of the UN, specifically DISEC, is to spread peace to unstable areas of the world, but high tech arms trading can often hinder this process when the aforementioned tyrannical powers gain use of these weapons that they would not otherwise have.
Due to Spain’s recent economic crisis, the Spanish economy is only recently able to export larges amounts of goods, including high tech weaponry. Due to the internal issues in Spain during the Francoist regime, Spain is relatively new to the weapons trade, and has only recently begun to produce high tech weaponry in coincidence with the expansion of the Spanish military. Along with this, Spain has not developed nuclear warheads. This is not only due to previous instability within Spain, but also due to Spain's signing of various treaties such as the The Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Spain seeks to reduce the armaments obtained by tyrannical governments, in accordance with treaties previously signed by the nation of Spain. As the ninth largest exporter of weaponry in the world, mainly to the United Arab Emirates, United States of America, and Saudi Arabia, Spain seeks to only export weapons to peace loving countries looking to defend themselves in the face of tyranny.
As a country committed to peace, member of NATO, and the EU, Spain is in the accordance with the beliefs of other NATO and EU members. Due to years of military instability in Spain, we recognize the negative effects armaments can create when they fall into the wrong hands. In accordance with the NPT, Spain seeks to eliminate the production as well as possessions of nuclear warheads by all countries. Spain believes that responsible countries, such as EU member nations, retain the right to hold armaments in order to defend themselves against evil, opposing, military powers, but Spain seeks to remove the vast armaments in regions of instability in order to restore peace to these states. Spain believes this could be achieved by offering incentives to unstable countries, seeking peace accords with these countries, such as new treaties on the basis of high tech weaponry and its production, as well as decreasing the production, exportation, and manipulation of armaments by all countries.
