As long overdue negotiations on an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) begin in early July under UN auspices, central to that discussion, by virtue of its international supremacy, will be the US export of arms that has facilitated the extensive sale of weapons around the planet. With only 19 out of 195 sovereign nations of the world with no military budget, the ATT conference will attempt to establish international standards for the $55 billion a year industry for the import, export and transfer of all conventional (small arms) weapons.
Even a widespread global recession and callous austerity budgets have done little to dampen an insatiable demand for weapons by industrialized nations, undemocratic nations and still developing or unstable nations with an estimated $1.7 trillion devoted to annual military expenditures in 2011, a 50 per cent increase in global military budgets since 2001 -- at the expense of providing a safe, secure world for all its citizens.
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