Small Arms Survey 2008

The Small Arms Survey is an independent research project located at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. It serves as the principal source of public information on all aspects of small arms and armed violence and as a resource centre for governments, policy-makers, researchers, and activists. The project has an international staff with expertise in security studies, political science, law, economics, development studies, and sociology, and collaborates with a network of partners in more than 50 countries.

• Foreword Bernard Kouchner; 1. Light weapons: products, producers, and proliferation; 2. Arsenals adrift: arms and ammunition diversion; 3. A semi-automatic process? Identifying and destroying military surplus; 4. Deadly deception: arms transfer diversion; 5. Who's buying? End-user certification; 6. The meaning of loss: firearms diversion in South Africa; Comic strip. Adventures of a would-be arms dealer; 7. Reducing armed violence: the public health approach; 8. Risk and resilience: understanding the potential for violence; 9. Targeting armed violence: public health interventions.

'The Small Arms Survey 2008: Risk and Resilience provides compelling evidence for expanding our approach to armed violence reduction from one focused on treating symptoms to one that also aims at prevention. This volume shines a light on public health-based efforts to identify risk and resilience factors of armed violence as well as a number of recent interventions. The 2008 Survey is a vital resource for policy-makers at all levels in our continuing collective work to protect populations at risk.' Bernard Kouchner, French Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Affairs