Arms and Disarmament

The conventional logic underpinning normal practices of states – and of non-state forces resorting to use of force to achieve political aims Peace is not always good, war is not always bad “Just war” and “unjust peace” Weapons are neutral, what matters is who uses them

and for what purpose You can’t obtain and secure peace and justice without

resort to violence as the final argument Use of force in politics will always be with us The best we can do is limit it

The antimilitarist position:

The destructiveness of modern warfare Weapons of mass destruction In wars, most casualties are now civilian

Use of force – both by states and by non-state forces - is often politically counterproductive

If we address root causes of conflict and work for just solutions by political means, weapons may not have to be used

Peace works - if it is based on justice

To make the world more peaceful, it is necessary to change the existing social conditions which breed conflict and violence

How to change it? A spectrum of proposed solutions: Facilitate replacement of authoritarian regimes by

democracies Promote social and economic development to eliminate

poverty and suffering Strive for equality and social justice Replace capitalism with some form of socialism

While recognizing the need to address the root causes of conflict, antimilitarism focuses on the means of political struggle

Arms buildups themselves make war more likely The incidence of warfare can be reduced if states cut their

armaments to a minimum

The idea of disarmament Traditional: compelling a defeated state to disarm In the 20th century: a new international practice - mutual

arms control and disarmament by international treaties Natural reaction to the Era of Global Conflict, which

threatens the very existence of humanity Limit the scale of wars Respond to public antiwar sentiment

Opposition to arms buildups dates back to late 19th century

Lord Welby, British Secretary of the Treasury, March 1914: “We are in the hands of an organization of crooks. They

are politicians, generals, manufacturers of armaments and journalists. All of them are anxious for unlimited expenditure, and go on inventing scares to terrify the public.”

Sir Edward Grey, British Foreign Secretary: “Great armaments lead inevitably to war.”

Quotes from David Cortright. Peace: A History of Movements and Ideas. Cambridge University Press, 2008, p.98

After WWI Covenant of the League of Nations, Article 8:

“The maintenance of peace requires the reduction of national armaments to the lowest point consistent with national safety.”

1922: the Five Power Naval Limitation Treaty, extended and Conferences of 1922 and 1930

A historic precedent was set World Disarmament Conference of 1932 – no success,

buildup of international tensions, new wars

After WWII Demobilization everywhere; strong desire for peace Creation of the United Nations Organization The Cold War generated a new arms race

1945: Start of the Nuclear Age

Hiroshima, Aug. 6, 1945

Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb

Soviet physicist Igor Kurchatov

Young Andrei Sakharov played a key role in the Soviet nuclear weapons program

Polish-born Joseph Rotblat, a Holocaust refugee, worked in the Manhattan Project until he found out that the bomb was needed against the Soviets, not the Germans. He quit in protest.

Nuclear weapons stockpiles

1960: The biggest nuclear bomb ever built: “Tsar-bomba”, “Big Ivan”, “Kooz’ka’s Mother” (from old Russian proverb, much liked by Khrushchev: “We’ll show you Kooz’ka’s mother!”

October 1961: The world’s biggest H-bomb tested at Novaya Zemlya Island, the Arctic, explosive power – 57 mt

Gen. Curtis B. LeMay, Chief of the Strategic Air Command, advocated all-out nuclear war to destroy Soviet Union and Red China

Late 1950s: birth of the international movement for nuclear disarmament

First diplomatic moves toward arms limitation 1961: US and Russian diplomats design a joint proposal

for general and complete disarmament 1961: The Antarctic Treaty is signed banning the use of

Antarctica for military purposes. See the full text: http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/library/treaties/antarctic/t

rty_antarctic_1961-06-23.htm

1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis jolts 3 nuclear weapons states into joint measures to reduce the nuclear threat

1963: The first arms control treaty signed in Moscow. The Partial Test Ban Treaty banning nuclear tests on the ground, in atmosphere and in outer space. Underground tests remain legal. See the full text: http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/library/treaties/partial-test-ban/trty_partial-test-ban_1963-10-10.htm

1967: The Outer Space Treaty limits the use of outer space for military purposes - http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/library/treaties/weapons-in-space/trty_weapons-in-space_1967-10-10.htm

1970: The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. States without nuclear weapons agree not to acquire them – in exchange for the commitment of nuclear-armed states to move towards full nuclear disarmament – http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/library/treaties/non-proliferation-treaty/index.htm

1972: The Seabed Treaty prohibiting the emplacement of weapons of mass destruction on the seabed - http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/library/treaties/seabed/trty_seabed_1972-05-18.htm

1972: US and USSR sign SALT-I agreements (the ABM Treaty and the Interim Agreement on Strategic Offensive Weapons). Ban on ballistic missile defenses and limitation of offensive nuclear arsenals – http://www.fas.org/nuke/control/abmt/text/abm2.htm

http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/library/treaties/usa-ussr/trty_us-ussr_interim-agreement-icbms_1972-05-26.htm

1979: US and USSR sign the SALT-II Treaty to strengthen and finalize the provisions of SALT-I. But the US Senate refuses to ratify the document. http://www.fas.org/nuke/control/salt2/index.html

1987: US and USSR sign the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty banning all all nuclear-armed ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers (about 300 to 3400 miles) and their infrastructure. The INF Treaty was the first nuclear arms control agreement to actually reduce nuclear arms, rather than establish ceilings that could not be exceeded. Under its provisions, about 2,700 nuclear weapons were destroyed. http://www.fas.org/nuke/control/inf/index.html

1991: US and USSR sign the Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (START-I), which leads to the reduction of the two sides’ strategic arsenals by 30-40%. The Treaty expires in December 2009.

http://www.fas.org/nuke/control/start1/index.html

1993: US and Russia sign the second Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (START-II), providing for further reductions in strategic offensive arsenals – down to 3000-3500 warheads. The Russian Parliament ratified the Treaty with a condition that the ABM Treaty of 1972 banning ballistic missile defenses must remain in force. In 2002, after President George Bush declared that the US was pulling out of the ABM Treaty in order to clear the way for the deployment of US ballistic missile defense systems, Russia withdrew from START-II.

http://www.fas.org/nuke/control/start1/index.html

2002: US and Russia sign the Moscow Treaty on Strategic Offensive Reductions (SORT), which will reduce the numbers of operationally deployed strategic offensive weapons of the two sides to 1700-2200 by the year 2012. The Treaty is currently in force. http://www.fas.org/nuke/control/sort/fs-sort.html

April 2009: Presidents Obama and Medvedev declared that the US and Russia will move toward complete elimination of nuclear weapons. Negotiations on a new US-Russian treaty to further reduce their strategic nuclear arms are in progress. http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=24254

The Nuclear Weapons Archive: http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/international_security_bt/444.php?nid=&id=&pnt=444