One of the few up-to-date works on the whole of the arms trade, this No-Nonsense Guide explores not just the movement of weaponry across borders, but also the problematic activities that sustain the trade, such as espionage, government corruption, and shady taxpayer subsidies.

This Guide reveals that despite Western governments’ preaching of the evils of the arms trade, they are the biggest exporters of weapons and they often sell them to repressive regimes throughout the world.

This revised second edition uses the latest statistics and information available to provide a critical introduction to this most destructive business.

Nicholas Gilby led the efforts of the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) to expose the corruption in British arms deals with Saudi Arabia. His research on arms trade corruption has been extensively featured in The Guardian, on the BBC and Al Jazeera, and in academic journals. He was previously a director of TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign.

Nicholas Gilby's profile page

“It is up to us to continue to strive for an end to this business of death, and this study provides an indispensable information tool to help us do so.”

Mark Curtis, writer and campaigner