Arms embargo is a restriction or ban on the export of certain weapons to a country or group of countries. It may be a stand-alone arms embargo, or it can be part of a wider set of targeted sanctions against a state or group of states (financial or non-financial) and/or a specific person. Arms embargo is usually accompanied by other targeted sanctions such as asset freezes, visa bans and travel restrictions.
Arms supply chains are notoriously difficult to monitor. Many states and companies collude with arms brokers and traffickers to avoid international restrictions. Even when states do report violations of arms export controls, their intelligence agencies are often biased by political interests, corruption or ignorance. Individuals involved in these networks can easily mask their origins by shipping weapons through multiple ports of entry or even changing the markings on their equipment. UN peacekeepers do not have the ability to track the full journey of weapons smuggled into embargoed countries, and even if they did, they would have no way to verify their provenance.
As a result, stand-alone arms embargoes are rarely effective, and multilateral embargoes operated by the UN or the EU have only limited success, especially when they are mandatory and include the world’s top exporters. Efforts to improve the design and effectiveness of arms embargoes will require better support for UN sanctions committees, the Secretariat and investigative teams from Member States close to embargoed entities, as well as greater national controls on international arms transfers by domestic manufacturers. Ultimately, the best approach is an international Arms Trade Treaty that would establish a uniform framework of controls on arms transfers and align them with states’ professed commitments to global peace and security.