Problemy kontroli zbrojeń i handlu uzbrojeniem – perspektywa międzynarodowa
Problems of arms trade control and disarmament – international perspective

Summary/Abstract: Up to the end of Cold War era, international security issues were predominantly associated with military aspects. From the early 1990s, the security issues have been perceived in broader context in order to accommodate other potential threats (economic, ecological, socio-cultural), to protect individual countries and whole regions of the world. The end of Cold War was indeed an important step in reducing the level of military threat on the global scale. However, the early years of the 21st century brought a number of traumatic events (terrorist attacks in New York, Madrid, London and Brussels, conflicts in Lybia, Syria and Ukraine). It appears that military aspects remain a major issue and continue to affect the perception of international security. For these reasons, international control over armament and arms transfer plays an increasingly significant role. The regimes apply both to conventional weapons and weapons of mass destruction. The nuclear program of North Korea, together with successful development of long-range ballistic missiles proves enough that proliferation of nuclear weapons is a serious threat to global security. It seems that neither the international agreements in force at present nor the control regimes can warrant international security. They fail to eliminate both the transfer of nuclear technologies and conventional arms trade. It appears that the main problem in the issue under study is the conflict of interests between major global players, namely the United States, Russia, China, India and Japan.

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