Title
Small Arms and Light Weapons - the Real Weapons of Mass Destruction: versimilitude and observations
Abstract
The question that should be addressed is this: what are the real weapons of mass destruction in contemporary international law, SALW or WMD(in the legal sense of the term)?
One of the core salient features of small arms and light weapons [SALW]is their lethal nature. And currently the lethal outcome is massive. It is persistently told that the human cost is half a million people lives in an annual base. The death toll of SALW is higher than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan at the end of the II World War. Besides,other social, economic and political grave consequences resulted in from the proliferation of such arms should not be forgotten. They are easily accessible and suitable for use by terrorists, criminals, belligerants and others than nuclear or similar armaments. They thus cause much more causalities than the so-called weapons of mass destuction. Even though many states, civil societies and writers considered SALW as the true weapons of mass destruction of our time, they have not yet got, legally speaking, such a status in international law.
Therefore, the international community should have to cope with the real threat of mass destruction. Todate, the real weapons of mass destrcution are small arms other than nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. Legally speaking albiet weapons such s chemical weapons hold the position of WMD. These armaments are not nonetheless obsolete security issues in the globe. Obviously,technically speaking,they could cause massive destruction, and not the case in reality, taking into consideration the current international political, economic and diplomatic set up of the international order.
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