A major international agreement is the ‘Framework Agreement Concerning Measures to Facilitate the Restructuring and Operation of the European Defence Industry’, signed by Britain and other leading arms exporters on 27^th July 2000, which established a set of guidelines for arms export. Under this agreement, signatories collaborating on arms projects can swap lists of desired recipients which are not open to public or parliamentary scrutiny; furthermore it agreed that the export licensing procedure only applied to the nation in which the components were manufactured and not the nation in which the company is based (Burrows, 2002, p.21). This clause means that the government can let British companies export to banned countries, through offshore manufacturing or selling to a ‘safe’ nation before re-sale to a final recipient, and avoid ethical dilemmas and any economic repercussions in the form of job losses or outsourcing. (ie, Military Land Rovers which have appeared in Sudan can be 'sold' to, for example, Turkey; and passed on to Sudan.)

The choice between ethics and economics is a recurring theme in policial decisions about arms licenses. For example, in 1997 there were £160 million of export licenses for Hawk aircraft to Indonesia, granted under the Conservative government, but awaiting delivery in 1997; as well as a £100 million contract with Alvis for scorpion armoured vehicles and water cannon. Revoking the licenses would mean the government had to compensate the companies for the cost of the goods, but revoking licenses is possible under EU agreements. In the event, the government decided to apply its rules only to new licenses and not to revoke those in existence, despite there being no guidelines stopping them following through on their ethical foreign policy and public commitments to change the situation (Phythian, 2000, p.295). The decision was a simple choice between morals and economic gains. Despite the promise of future limits and scrutiny of arms exports, in its first year in office, the government granted 56 Military Arms export licenses to Indonesia and blocked only 7, including an order for sniper rifles and armoured land rovers valued at only £1million (Phythian, 2000, p.297). This, in a period when they were used for the suppression of the indeigenous people of East Timor. The struggle of whom Britain later supported.

 I appologise for a lenghly and possibly unweildy argument, but it is merely two of a series of issues which have dogged my studies and dissertation from their outset and wondered if there were any pearls of wisom out there...