This thesis investigates how the German Federal Government lives up to its normative and international commitments and initiatives to harmonize arms export controls. By analyzing existing data from...Show moreThis thesis investigates how the German Federal Government lives up to its normative and international commitments and initiatives to harmonize arms export controls. By analyzing existing data from the Federal Government’s yearly reports on its policy on exports of conventional military equipment and applying the International Relations Theories of Neorealism and Neoliberalism, it highlights the inseparability of arms export policy frameworks and foreign and security policy interests in the case of Germany. Furthermore, this thesis calls attention to the hierarchical structure that exists within this inseparability where the country’s arms export policy framework is given a secondary role to its foreign and security interests.Show less
Although there has been written extensively on the different arms treaties, there has not been developed a way to consistently determine the strength of a treaty with the help of a set of criteria,...Show moreAlthough there has been written extensively on the different arms treaties, there has not been developed a way to consistently determine the strength of a treaty with the help of a set of criteria, thus far. This research project aims to establish such a list (although merely a preliminary one), along with a proper definition of the often-used but undefined concept of loopholes. This writing will also offer an explanation for the found weaknesses of the Arms Trade Treaty, using neorealism as its starting point. In closure, the author argues that strong treaties are forged outside the United Nations—free of great power leverage—while weaker treaties are drafted within the consensus-minded United Nations under the watchful eyes of great powers.Show less
