A Call to (Track) Arms

To open the session, Jonah Leff MPA ’07, director of operations at Conflict Armament Research (car), delivered a presentation about car’s efforts to iden­tify and collect weapons and ammunition used by ISIS in Syria and Iraq. The discus­sion that followed was hosted by Rachel Stohl MAIPS ’97, senior associate at the Stimson Center and a highly regarded expert and frequent media commentator on small arms and drones, and it featured panelists Shawn Harris MPA ’13 and Tim Michetti MAIPS ’14, who both work with Jonah as field investigators.

“We found that there was a great need to bring evidential fieldwork to the policy discussion,” shares Jonah, describing how car sends small teams to conflict zones to track conventional weapons, establish where they were manufactured, and track the chain of custody. This project is large­ly funded by the European Union and all of its data is publicly available via an on­line database called iTrace.

In addition to their fields of expertise, another shared connection is Professor Ed Laurance, a longtime United Nations advisor and leading figure in setting glob­al standards for controlling small arms proliferation. Jonah’s interest in this top­ic was first piqued, and then nurtured, by Professor Laurance, who later connected him with Rachel, now a frequent collabo­rator. When he began his new role at car and needed to hire skilled investigators, he reached out to Ed again and found Tim and Shawn. As Ed notes, “Nothing is more rewarding than seeing my stu­dents become well-known professionals and colleagues in the field of security and development.” He adds that he particu­larly enjoys “observing them doing the same things as I used to do, only much better!”