PROGRAM

"Non-Violence" by Karl Fredrik Reutersward
(UN Photo 179922/ P. Sudhakaran)

A major goal of the Program on Global Security and Disarmament is to help create an intellectual and policy environment in which a serious and carefully researched discussion of disarmament and security issues can take place. Through such a discussion, we hope to contribute to policies that can ultimately help reduce the level of international violence and increase international stability.

In 1998, the University of Maryland Department of Government and Politics established a new Program on General Disarmament, under the leadership of Dr. Gar Alperovitz and Dr. Natalie J. Goldring, to increase understanding of general disarmament.  From the beginning the program has incorporated analysis, research, training, public education and international networking. A central premise has been that it is time to place the subject of general and complete disarmament back on the national and international intellectual and policy agenda.

Over the course of its first three years, the program broadened its scope to include a wider range of security issues than was originally planned. We found that rigorous discussion and analysis of disarmament issues naturally required consideration and incorporation of more traditional security questions.

In January 2002, we renamed the program to reflect this broader agenda. The Program on Global Security and Disarmament continues to research the issue of general disarmament within this context.

We believe that this is an opportune time to devote substantive study and research to the issues of global security and disarmament:

• The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War make it possible to reconsider this issue. Cold War security policies left little room for consideration of general disarmament, despite successive US administrations' rhetorical commitment to the principle. Moreover, recent developments concerning terrorist attacks have produced a new urgency to develop concrete solutions to global challenges.
• Dealing fully with nuclear issues inevitably forces the consideration of conventional weapons as well. To take just one example, it will be difficult to make serious progress with Pakistan and India on nuclear or conventional weapons issues as long as China retains its nuclear weapons. China will not disarm without Russia, and Russia awaits moves from the United States.
• Research and analysis of conventional and nuclear proliferation issues has produced an extensive resource base. This material will be extremely useful in systematically investigating the preconditions for and obstacles to general disarmament.
  

This research and analysis will require sustained effort over at least a decade. In the short- to medium-term, we plan to help train academics and analysts and build an international network to mobilize support for the serious examination and discussion among concerned members of the public, academics, analysts, journalists, and government officials. In turn, they will carry out intensive research on how to bring about progress toward disarmament and a more secure world, and will help reshape the policy debate and the climate within which security and disarmament are discussed. In the longer term, potential benefits of greater disarmament include:

• Decreasing the likelihood of war and international conflict. Arms races tend to exacerbate tensions. However, negotiated, verified reductions encourage cooperation and mutual trust, as we have seen in Europe over the past decade and a half.
• Preventing new superpower rivalries. The potential for a new cold war, possibly between the United States and China, is disturbingly real. Sustaining a dialogue toward a disarmament regime could go a long way toward defusing this conflict.
• Reducing the damage resulting from conflict. As increased attention to light weapons has highlighted, the vast majority of deaths in recent conflicts have occurred in small-scale conflicts involving small arms and light weapons. As high levels of military production continue in the major powers, weapons are transferred through a variety of legal and illegal means to conflict-prone regions.
• Increasing the funds available for non-military programs. Reducing military forces in the United States and abroad could increase global funding for education, development, sanitation, health, and relief of poverty and hunger.

Inspirace, Midrot Jaceloder, Krakow, Poland
(UN Photograph)

Like many issues in global security, the idea of general disarmament is of course by no means new; it has been endorsed by many presidents, including Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Clinton. In turn, the United States is committed to pursuing general disarmament by several treaties, including the Non-Proliferation Treaty. However, in recent years, surprisingly little research and policy work has been done on this issue. The bulk of the research and analysis that has been conducted on arms control has taken a narrow approach. A great deal of important work has been undertaken on nuclear disarmament and on conventional disarmament; however, this work has generally failed to examine the links between these sets of issues.

Projects that suggest new paradigms for analysis, research, and discussion have precedents across the political spectrum. Over the next decade, we hope to bring discussions of disarmament into the political mainstream. If we are successful, this would parallel efforts toward nuclear disarmament, which has now entered mainstream discussions. The most important first step is developing the necessary research, analytic, and training capacity to thoroughly investigate the long-term possibilities for and obstacles to a general disarmament regime.

We gratefully acknowledge the generous support of The Ford Foundation and The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for the Program On Global Security and Disarmament.