Book excerpt: Is the arms trade totally uncontrolled? What are the main obstacles to limitations on arms transfers? What can be learned from past attempts at arms transfer control? This book, which completes SIPRI's trilogy on the facts and implications of Third World build-up of major conventional weapons, assesses past efforts, current proposals and future possibilities to limit the transfer of weapons and military technology to Third World countries. It is a companion to the two SIPRI volumes, Arms Production in the Third World (1986) and Arms Transfers to the Third World 1971-85 (OUP, 1987)