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About the Arms Sales Monitoring Project 

The  Arms Sales Monitoring Project seeks to increase transparency, accountability and restraint in U.S. arms exports; broaden the coalition of citizens working to reform arms export policy; increase the level of pressure on policy makers to act for the public interest; and to serve as a repository of data on U.S. arms transfers and arms export controls.

The Project was founded by Lora Lumpe in 1991, who directed the project until August 1998. Under her leadership, the Project grew in size, scope, and stature—it is now recognized as one of the best sources of information and analysis on U.S. arms export policy. The ASMP is currently managed by Matt Schroeder.

Since 1991, the FAS Arms Sales Monitoring Project has worked for transparency and accountability in global conventional weapons production and trade. Our aim is to prevent weapons diversions and dangerous military build-ups, and thereby reduce the likelihood of warfare and illicit weapons trafficking.

For the past decade, we have reported on the U.S. government's arms export policies and practices through the publication of reports and articles, media outreach, and public speaking. Our objective is to get information out to interested journalists, policy makers, and the general public so that many people can act on it, achieving much more than we alone can.

In addition to our ongoing data collection and dissemination and media work, our current foci include preventing the proliferation of man-portable air defense systems (MANPADs), combating the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons, preserving the strength of U.S. export controls, and working to facilitate the ratification of the Organization of American States' (OAS) Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Related Materials.

Through each of these initiatives, we continue our two-prong approach to reining in the global arms trade—strengthening domestic controls while working for the creation and ratification of international agreements that impose comparable restrictions on foreign exporters.