One of the failures of globalization is that it has permitted the creation of a new war economy where, in exchange for diamonds and other natural resources, certain corporations provide warlords with the financial resources they need to operate - money that is funnelled back to yet other dubious businesses that are only too happy to make their profit through the illicit arms trade. Those companies must look beyond narrow short-term interests and start to appreciate the real impact of this trade on the lives of people. In other words, they must become part of the solution. Some encouraging steps are being taken. We also need to think of new ways to approach the problem of small arms.
Small arms are ubiquitous, but they are useless without ammunition.
We should consider how we might track, control or mark ammunition as one way of controlling the lethal effect of these weapons. We should also look at unilateral actions such as destruction of surplus stocks. South Africa did it because it had the foresight to know that it had to destroy these weapons before they could kill.