Non-state transfers

In arms sales and black market activities, non-state transfers are transactions of weapons or other goods - material or non-material - where neither party involved is a government. This is in contrast to the usual practice of arms sales, where a government purchases arms from another government or from private industry. This is also in contrast to situations where a government may provide arms to a non-state actor, such as a separatist movement or terrorists.

Examples of non-state transfers could include theft from the military of a sovereign state, sale by a private individual of government goods which do not legally belong to him, and a variety of other black market activities.

Many attempts at international arms control, such as the Chemical Weapons Convention, Biological Weapons Convention , and the Australia Group, are premised on the notion that one or both parties involved will be state actors. Thus, non-state transfers represent a generally unaddressed area of concern regarding weapons proliferation.

External links

• Congressional Research Service. “Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Programs: Issues for Congress.” 23 March 2001.
• Ford, Carl W. “Reducing the Threat of Chemical and Biological Weapons.” Testimony to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. 19 March 2002.
• Moodie, Michael. “International Smuggling Networks: Weapons of Mass Destruction Counterproliferation Initiatives.” Testimony to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. 23 June 2004.
• 'Russian Biological and Chemical Weapons.'