Although there is often opposition to individual wars, most people continue to believe that the arms industry is necessary in some form: to safeguard our security, provide jobs and stimulate the economy. Not only conservatives, but many progressives and liberals, support it for these reasons. Indefensible puts forward a devastating challenge to this conventional wisdom, which has normalised the existence of the most savage weapons of mass destruction ever known. It is the essential handbook for those who want to debunk the arguments of the industry and its supporters: deploying case studies, statistics and irrefutable evidence to demonstrate they are fundamentally flawed, both factually and logically. Far from protecting us, the book shows how the arms trade undermines our security by fanning the flames of war, terrorism and global instability. In countering these myths, the book points to ways in which we can combat the arms trade's malignant influence, reclaim our democracies and reshape our economies.

Whether the war zone be in Africa, Sri Lanka, Chechnya or Afghanistan, most people are not killed by hi-tech or heavy weaponry, but by the small arms, cheap and accessible, that have flooded into so many countries in recent years. Crime rates involving guns have also soared, as South Africa and Kenya have experienced. Yet much of this cross-border arms trade is illegal. Several governments, including the United States, Canada and Mexico, are now pressing for a new global treaty on illegal trafficking in small arms. This book is a fascinating, highly informative and policy-relevant investigation into an issue about which far too little is known, and which raises crucial questions about the black market.