Theoretical Foundations of Military Weapons Equipment Control with an Emphasis on Contradictory Stands of UN and WTO on Conventional Military Weapons Trade

The legal regime of military weapons  equipment control refers to the legal stands of states and international organizations on manufacturing, trading, and utilizing weapons. These legal stands can be realized by reviewing the relevant international documents. All of the international documents on the military weapons equipment control seek the common goal of maintaining international peace and security by setting certain regulations to control the production, trade, and use of weapons. However, since there are various theoretical foundations for the military weapons equipment control, international documents differ in the solutions that they offer for this international problem. This study aims to address the views of these theoretical foundations regarding the production, trade, and use of weapons in addition to determining the conflicts in the approaches adopted by the UN and the WTO to the conventional military weapons equipment trade. For this purpose, the authors used a descriptive-analytical method and they also employed a comparison method in some cases. The general research results explained and criticized the existing theoretical foundations for the military weaponry control. The results also emphasized the admirable activity of the UN and the condemnable stand of the WTO with regard to the conventional military weapons equipment trade.