Since the early 2000s, counter-improvised explosive device (C-IED) doctrine has been organized around three complementary functions: ‘Defeat the device, prepare the force, and attack the network’. These remain central to C-IED measures today. However, experience over the past two decades has highlighted the importance of looking beyond individual devices and attacks to understand the wider conditions in which IED threats emerge, persist, and evolve.

Despite a 20-year international campaign to combat the threat from illicit man-portable air defence systems (MANPADS), acquisition and use of these weapons by non-state armed groups continues, especially in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) continue to represent a persistent and increasingly complex global threat, with profound humanitarian, security, and socio-economic consequences. In 2023 alone, IED incidents resulted in 3,237 casualties across 25 countries, with civilians accounting for more than two-thirds of those affected.

What are civilian attitudes to and experiences with firearm safety and training in Ukraine?

In line with the Small Arms Survey’s on-going monitoring of the impact that war has had on Ukrainian citizens and their relationship with small arms and light weapons, this infographic updates our key findings based on the results of our latest population survey conducted in October 2025.

'For years, the response to IEDs was predominantly a military one, focusing on efforts to 'defeat the device', 'attack the networks', and 'prepare the force'. While these steps are important, they are not sufficient. Without tackling the deeper causes of the issue - such as weak governance, marginalization, and lack of trust in state institutions - the devastating ramifications of IEDs will persist.'

'While firearm seizures often take centre stage in research and media articles, ammunition receives far less attention. Pistols, shotguns, and rifles cannot maim and kill without ammunition, yet ammunition seizures are frequently overlooked when not accompanied by firearms. The analysis of ammunition seizures can, nevertheless, provide important insights into the nature and scope of armed violence in a given region and, by extension, the public health risks posed by firearm-related injuries and deaths.'

This paper investigates how the war in Sudan is transforming Khartoum through acts of urbicide—the deliberate destruction of urban environments. It draws on satellite imagery, eyewitness testimony, and analysis of conflict dynamics to show how the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces have reshaped the capital’s geography. 

'In the world of 3D-printed guns, one figure looms large: ‘JStark1809’. It is difficult to overstate his influence. He designed the FGC-9, one of the most popular 3D-printed guns in circulation. He also created Deterrence Dispensed, an influential network of gun designers. Since his death in 2021 he has been revered as a quasi-martyr for the right to bear arms, resulting in a cult-like following within the 3D-printed gun movement.'

Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have become a key tool in asymmetric warfare, employed in the pursuit of many objectives, including destabilization of the state and governing authorities, exertion of control and influence, and creation of fear in a population. More than 80 per cent of civilian IED casualties occur in civilian spaces, and civilians are deliberately targeted, including vulnerable groups such as children.

The rate of violent deaths in the Caribbean remains well above the world average. Trafficking—including of firearm parts used to build privately made firearms (PMFs)—remains the primary source of small arms seized in the region. PMFs in the Caribbean vary widely in sophistication. Given their low cost and the increasingly diverse ways in which key firearm components can be acquired or produced—including through the use of 3D-printing and CNC-milling technology—PMFs have the potential to become a significant threat.