One of the few up-to-date works on the whole of the arms trade, this book puts the global trade in weapons in the context of history and includes recent controversial deals as well as case studies on Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Darfur. Exposes the cynicism, bribery and insider deals which characterize the conventional trade and the hidden world of torture. Despite the cynicism, bribery, and corruption that characterize the trade, it continues to receive government backing; and UN Security Council member states are the biggest exporters of arms, often to repressive regimes. Guns, landmines, bombs and rockets - the arms trade brings death and destruction to millions of people around the world, many of them civilians.