Arms embargo is a trade sanction that limits the transfer of weapons and dual-use items to a country or specific individuals. An arms embargo can be stand-alone or a component of a comprehensive sanctions package which also includes general trade bans, other sanctions (financial), travel bans and asset freezes.
Stand-alone arms embargoes have largely failed, and are typically paired with other targeted sanctions to limit financing and penalize influential economic and political players. This approach aims to limit the flow of arms by making it more costly, time-consuming, or dangerous for non-state actors to procure them.
Nevertheless, even when fully implemented, this combination of measures is not foolproof. Most breaches of arms embargoes occur in the semi-legal and state-sanctioned illicit arms trade, which is used to supply unauthorized non-state parties or groups involved in political violence. This can be hard to monitor because of high transaction costs and complex arrangements that involve the direct complicity of government officials.
In some cases, states may be willing to break an arms embargo out of a sense of moral obligation. The UN arms embargo on Bosnia, for example, led to states like Iran and Turkey refusing to abide by the terms because they felt that it disproportionately advantaged the Bosnian Serbs.
Ultimately, the effectiveness of arms embargoes is rooted in a deeper understanding of the motivations for state behavior. Studies have found that economic considerations are often less important than ideological and strategic motives, which include bolstering preferred political partners, strengthening military alliances, increasing interoperability between armed forces, changing the balance of power in a region, or simply maintaining or reversing a previous military advantage.