Unplanned Explosions at Munitions sites (UEMS) : Excess Stockpiles as Liabilities Rather than Assets

As this study ably points out, dozens of actors, governments, international and regional organizations, non-governmental organizations, and private companies, are making important progress towards establishing safer stockpiles. This Handbook documents, in impressive breadth and depth, the numerous initiatives under way to address the challenges of stockpile management and surplus destruction. As this Handbook records with authority, more than half of the UN member states have experienced an explosion at a munitions site in the past 35 years. All told, the Survey has documented more than 500 such events over this time span. A single incident can result in tens of deaths, hundreds of injuries, and the displacement of thousands of people. Given the lack of reporting, these numbers, troubling enough in themselves, in all likelihood under-represent the full geographical scope and human scale of the problem. The Fifth Biennial Meeting of States (BMS5) within the PoA framework gives UN member states an opportunity to make further progress in improving the security and safety of stockpiles, and destroying surplus accumulations so that they do not accidentally explode or proliferate, finding their way to illicit markets. This Handbook deserves a wide readership and is likely to remain a valuable resource for policy-makers and practitioners for years to come.