Armaments, arms control and disarmament; a Unesco - unesdoc

433 Pages·2008·23.57 MB·English

by  Thee, Marek

Armaments, arms control and disarmament
Armaments,
arms control and
disarmament
A Unesco reader
for disarmament education
Edited by Marek Thee
Director, International Peace
Research Institute, Oslo
Unesco
The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply
the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of Unesco concerning the legal status of any
country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or
boundaries.
First published in 1981 by the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
7 place de Fontenoy, 75700 Paris
Printed by Imprimerie Darantiere, Dijon-Quetigny
Second impression 1982
ISBN 92-3-101920-1
C Unesco I98I
Printed in France
Preface
The General Assembly of the United Nations has clearly set out the objective of
disarmament education in the Final Document of its Tenth Special Session,
devoted to disarmament:
With a view to contributing to a greater understanding and awareness of the problems
created by the armaments race and of the need for disarmament, Governments and
governmental and non-governmental international organizations are urged to take steps to
develop programmes of education for disarmament and peace studies at all levels.
The same session of the General Assembly urged Unesco to 'step up this
programme aimed at the development of disarmament education as a distinct field
of study through the preparation, inter alia, of teachers' guides, textbooks, readers
and audio-visual materials'.
Unesco is very pleased to present this reader as a contribution to the
promotion of disarmament education at the university level. It has been conceived
as background reading for an undergraduate or postgraduate course on disarma
ment-related issues.
Dr Marek Thee, director of the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo,
and Editor-in-Chief of the Bulletin of Peace Proposals, has undertaken the task of
general editor of this reader. While maintaining the essential ideas and arguments
of the authors, he has shortened and rearranged the material (most of which has
been published elsewhere) to make a coherent whole. Unesco expresses its
warmest thanks to Dr Thee for his untiring efforts to co-ordinate the volume and
to each of the contributors for authorizing reproduction of this material. The
authors are, of course, responsible for the choice and the presentation of the facts
contained in their respective contributions and the opinions contained therein,
which are not necessarily those of Unesco.
Unesco hopes that this reader will encourage the creation or further devel
opment of specialized teaching and research on armaments, the arms race and
disarmament in the spirit of the principles of disarmament education adopted by
the World Congress on Disarmament Education (Unesco, 9-13 June 1980),
reproduced in this book on pages 338-40. In presenting this reader, Unesco
wishes to reiterate the importance disarmament education can have in the long
run, and indeed the imperative it represents for the future. In the finalw ords of the
principles ofthat congress, 'the challenge is all the greater as the stakes are so high'.
This reader and similar efforts will, we hope, contribute to meeting that challenge.
Contents
Foreword Marek Thee 11
Part I. The armaments race and its socio-political impact
1. Arms race indicators Stockholm International Peace Research Institute 15
2. Socio-political indicators Ruth Leger Sivard 35
3. Economic and social consequences
of the arms race United Nations Group of Consultant Experts 40
4. Worldwide effects of nuclear war—some
perspectives United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency 58
Part II. Studying the past
5. The historical perspective Bert V. A. Roling 69
Appendix. The sword shall not be the arbiter
among nations Bertha von Suttner 72
6. Modern disarmament efforts before the Second
World War Stanford Arms Control Group 74
7. Conditions for successful disarmament Quincy Wright 86
Part III. Armament dynamics
8. The dynamics of the arms race Marek Thee 97
9. On the theory of armaments dynamics Gert Krell 109
10. Arms-race dynamics and arms control Dieter Senghaas 120
11. The military innovation system and
the qualitative arms race Harvey Brooks 130
12. Arms control and technological change Christoph Bertram 144
Part IV. Arms control and disarmament
13. Review of arms-control agreements Jozef Goldblat 159
14. The achievements of arms control George Ignatieff 177
15. Disarmament and détente Evgeni M. Primakov 188
16. Third World and disarmament: shadow and substance M. Azim Hussain 197
17. The nuclear arms race: an alternative perspective K. Subrahmanyam 203
18. The competition in the stockpiling of weapons:
a way out Oleg Bykov 210
Part V. The United Nations and disarmament
19. Final Document of the Special Session
of the General Assembly Devoted to Disarmament 217
Appendix I. General and complete disarmament 240
Appendix II. United Nations action on the standardization
of military budgets (Editor's note) 243
20. Taking stock of the United Nations Special Session
Devoted to Disarmament Sverre Lodgaard 244
21. An integrated approach to disarmament Frank Barnaby 250
22. The United Nations Special Session: two years after Homer Jack 253
23. Comprehensive programme of disarmament United Nations
Department of Public Information 258
24. Elements of a comprehensive programme
of disarmament: a proposal by China Chinese delegation,
United Nations Disarmament Commission, Geneva 263
25. The disarmament process: where to begin Robert C. Johansen 267
26. The international law of arms control
and disarmament Bert V. A. Rating 272
Part VI. Some alternative peace strategies
27. Graduated and reciprocated initiatives
in tension-reduction (GRIT) Charles E. Osgood 283
28. Strategies for peaceful change Ernst-Otto Czmpiel 290
29. Confidence-building as an approach to
co-operative arms regulations in Europe Karl E. Birnbaum 297
30. A political design for world disarmament Yoshikazu Sakamoto 302
Part VII. Public opinion and education for disarmament
31. The role of the mass media in the search
for peace Séan MacBride 315
32. The imperative of disarmament
education World Congress on Disarmament Education 321
33. Disarmament education as a distinct
field of study Alessandro Corradini 328
34. Ten principles for disarmament
education World Congress on Disarmament Education 338
35. Secondary-school and teacher-training curricula
for disarmament education: problems,
needs and priorities Betty Reardon 341
36. Armament and disarmament in the teaching
of economics Pierre Fabre 351
37. The flow of information and disarmament Tapio Varis 356
38. The contribution of public opinion to
international détente Alexander Kalyadin 360
39. Non-governmental organizations and disarmament Homer Jack 365
Part VIII. Between peace and war: the challenge of disarmament
40. Peace or oblivion? An inescapable
choice in the atomic age Philip Noel-Baker 373
41. Medical nuclear warning Medical Working Group, Pugwash Conferences 378
42. On the brink of the final abyss Lord Mountbatten 380
43. Unable to visualize nuclear war Lord Zuckermann 384
44. The mad nuclear scramble Gene R. La Roque 388
45. Détente—the only reasonable policy
for the future Georgi A. Arbatov 394
46. Disarmament, development and a just
world order Rajni Kothari 398
Appendices
I. Glossary of terms, acronyms and abbreviations 407
II. Tables of world military expenditure, arms importers and exporters 421
Select bibliography 429
Index 437
Foreword
The Unesco initiative to develop disarmament education as a distinct field of study
and as a tool for mobilizing knowledgeable public opinion on questions of peace
and war comes at a crucial moment in history after the Second World War. As we
enter the 1980s, international tension is mounting and questions of peace and war
trouble everyone. Threats of force and the use of force in international relations
have become more frequent, the arms race has accelerated and arms-control
negotiations have become bogged down in deep crisis. The spectre of a new world
conflagration with the possible use of nuclear weapons is growing.
There are continuing efforts to overcome the crisis, to reduce tension and bring
the arms race under control. However, one lesson brought home in the course of
events is that success in these efforts depends vitally on political will and the
involvement in the decision-making process of well-informed and enlightened
public opinion. Questions of peace and war in the nuclear age, with highly
sophisticated nuclear weapons deployed around the globe, cannot be left any
longer to generals and diplomats alone. They have become a problem of survival
of the human race and should become the subject of learning and debate by as
many strata of concerned citizens as possible, nationally and internationally. The
peoples of the world should have a decisive voice in solving problems which
threaten their very life. Participatory democracy is imperative here as in no other
area of human concern.
The present work is meant to further the cause of disarmament education. It
should serve as an introduction to contemporary problems of armaments, arms
control and disarmament. It is meant as a compendium for disarmament edu
cation in secondary schools and universities, as a handbook for concerned poli
ticians, and as a manual for all interested in halting and reversing the arms race.
The approach is pluralistic; different views are expressed. However, there is one
basic message: the overriding interest of all human beings in averting war and
nuclear calamity.
Three criteria guided the selection of the materials for this reader: the most
objective information possible; reliable scholarly analysis; and relevance to the
contemporary debate on armaments and disarmament. Thus we tried:
To supply basic data and information about the ongoing armaments buildup and