Brokers can play an important role in facilitating or acting as intermediaries in the legitimate conventional arms trade. However, for more than 30 years, high-profile cases have raised greater awareness of arms brokering. This includes awareness of the ways in which some unscrupulous brokers continue to be actively engaged in the diversion and illicit trade in conventional arms, including small arms and light weapons and ammunition to or between unauthorized (end-)users, including criminals, non-state armed groups and terrorist groups, as well as their procurement networks.
This Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) issue brief is intended to support the efforts of ATT States Parties to implement the treaty’s brokering and related provisions. Since the treaty’s entry into force, no dedicated dialogue has occurred under the ATT framework on the regulation and control of brokers and brokering in conventional arms. A number of questions, knowledge gaps and key issues have thus remained unresolved since the negotiation of the treaty. This issue brief addresses some of these gaps by identifying key issues that merit further consideration by States and other interested parties. It is intended to provide a basis for discussions on the complex issue of regulating arms brokering by the ATT Working Group on Effective Treaty Implementation.
This is the fifth in a series of ATT issue briefs released as part of joint research by the research consortium composed of UNIDIR, Conflict Armament Research and the Stimson Center. The research consortium, established in 2019, provides research, technical advice, expertise and tools to States and other interested parties to enhance knowledge and facilitate dialogue among states, strengthen shared understanding of the impact of the ATT in addressing risks of diversion and identify avenues to further promote effective policies and practises under the treaty.
Citation: Hardy Giezendanner, Anna Mensah-Sackey, Ishtiaq Khan, Rob Hunter-Perkins, Rachel Stohl, “The Arms Trade Treaty: Regulating Brokering to Reduce the Risk of Diversion”, UNIDIR, Geneva, 2025, https://doi.org/10.37559/CAAP/25/ASC/04