Arms embargo are trade restrictions imposed by states or international bodies that prohibit the sale of weapons and military technology to specific individuals or groups. They are typically based on UN resolutions or EU regulations and apply to arms, ammunition and munitions as well as the services that are necessary to operate these weapons systems.
Unlike other types of sanctions, arms embargoes are rarely stand-alone policies and are instead paired with targeted financial or diplomatic sanctions designed to penalize key political and economic players. This pairing increases their effectiveness, but the primary logic behind such policies remains the same – to achieve a desired change in behaviour or limit options for certain actors.
However, such measures are difficult to implement and even more so when it comes to arms embargoes because of the complexity in detecting illicit weapons flows. This is particularly true because illicit arms shipments are often intermingled with, or moved along the same routes as, legitimate cargo. This makes it harder for law enforcement to distinguish them, and allows illicit arms to reach their intended destinations.
Further complicating matters, a small number of major exporters have the capacity to undermine even the most stringent embargoes, and do so frequently. Such violations occur when the political and strategic benefits of non-compliance outweigh the costs of getting caught and the risks of sanctions failure. For example, oil-dependent states that face domestic protests like the Gilets Jaunes in France may be tempted to violate an embargo against Libya in order to gain leverage against its internationally recognized government and avoid social unrest.