If it sells more, it accomplish less? Brazil between international regulations and the expansion of its defense industry

Abstract

The increase of international attention regarding the theme of small arms has generated several actions that demonstrate this concern. Multilateral and non-governmental organizations, such as the UN and Caritas, record the use of small arms in many of the world's conflict zones. However, its regulation in international humanitarian law is sparse, which suits, above all, arms manufacturers. The Defense Industry has been encouraged indiscriminately in Brazil and this incentive appears in the 2008 National Defense Strategy. As stated by the Small Arms Trade Survey, Brazil occupies the fourth position worldwide in small arms sales, and according to the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC), there has been an increase of 500% in the value of exports within this sector, which rose from US$ 109.6 million in 2005 to US$ 321.6 million in 2010. This study, which was carried out using a qualitative approach and according to the inductive method with prospective character, based on the content analysis of legal and documental materials, presents the following hypothesis: that the development of the defense industry has been a factor that has prevented the adoption of stronger legal measures for managing the regulation of conventional weapons, although Brazil is a signatory of some of the treatises on this subject.