Arms control
Arms control is an umbrella term for restrictions upon the development, production, stockpiling,
proliferation, and usage of
weapons, especially
weapons of mass destruction. Arms control is typically exercised through the use of
diplomacy which seeks to impose such limitations upon consenting participants through international
treaties and agreements, although it may also comprise efforts by a nation or group of nations to enforce limitations upon a non-consenting country.
On a national or community level,
arms control can amount to programs to control the access of private citizens to weapons. This is often referred to as
gun politics, as firearms are the primary focus of such efforts in most places. This is also commonly known as
victim disarmament by those who favor the continuation of gun rights, for the preservation of rights such as protected by the
Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Arms control treaties and agreements are often seen as a way to avoid costly
arms races which would prove counter-productive to national aims and future peace. Some are used as ways to stop the spread of certain military technologies (such as nuclear weaponry or missile technology) in return for assurances to potential developers that they will not be victims of those technologies. Additionally, some arms control agreements are entered to limit the damage done by warfare, especially to civilians and the environment, which is seen as bad for all participants regardless of who wins a war.
While arms control treaties are seen by many peace proponents as a key tool against war, by the participants, they are often seen as simply ways to limit the high costs of the development and building of weapons, and even reduce the costs associated with war itself. Arms control can even be a way of maintaining the viability of military action by limiting those weapons that would make war so costly and destructive as to make it no longer a viable tool for national policy.
Enforcement of arms control agreements has proven difficult over time. Most agreements rely on the continued desire of the participants to abide by the terms to remain effective. Usually, when a nation no longer desires to abide by the terms, they usually will seek to either covertly circumvent the terms or to simply end their participation in the treaty. This was seen in
Washington Naval Treaty (and the subsequent
London Naval Treaty), where most participants sought to work around the limitations, some more legitimately than others. The United States developed better technology to get better performance from their ships while still working within the weight limits, the United Kingdom exploited a loop-hole in the terms, the Italians misrepresented the weight of their vessels, and when up against the limits, Japan simply left the treaty. The nations which violated the terms of the treaty did not suffer great consequences for their actions. Within little more than a decade, the treaty was abandoned. The
Geneva Protocol has lasted longer and been more successful at being respected, but still nations have violated it at will when they have felt the need. Enforcement has been haphazard, with measures more a matter of politics than adherence to the terms. This meant sanctions and other measures tended to be advocated against violators primarily by their natural political enemies, while violations have been ignored or given only token measures by their political allies.
More recent arms control treaties have included more stringent terms on enforcement of violations as well as verification. This last has been a major obstacle to effective enforcement, as violators often attempt to covertly circumvent the terms of the agreements. Verification is the process of determining whether or not a nation is complying with the terms of an agreement, and involves a combination of release of such information by participants as well as some way to allow participants to examine each other to verify that information. This often involves as much negotion as the limits themselves, and in some cases questions of verification have led to the breakdown of treaty negotiations (for example, verification was cited as a major concern by opponents of the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, ultimately not ratified by the United States).
Nations may remain in a treaty while seeking to break the limits of that treaty as opposed to simply withdrawing from it. This is for two major reasons. To openly defy an agreement, even if one withdraws from it, often is seen in a bad light politically and can carry diplomatic repercussions. Additionally, if one remains in an agreement, competitors who are also participatory may be held to the limitations of the terms, while withdrawal releases your opponents to make the same developments you are making, limiting the advantage of that development.
Scholars and practitioners such as
John Steinbruner,
Jonathan Dean or
Stuart Croft worked extensively on the theoretical backing of arms control. Arms control is meant to break the
security dilemma. It aims at mutual security between partners and overall stability (be it in a crisis situation, a grand-strategy, or stability to put an end to an
arms race). Other than stability, arms control comes with cost reduction and damage limitation. It is conceptually differentiated from
disarmament since the maintenance of stability might allow for mutually controlled armament and does not take a peace-without-weapons-stance. Nevertheless, arms control is a defensive strategy in principle, since transparency, equality, and stability do not fit into an offensive strategy.
One of the first recorded attempts in arms control was a set of rules laid down in ancient Greece by the
Amphictyonic Leagues. Rulings specified how war could be waged, and breaches of this could be punished by fines or by war.
There were few recorded attempts to control arms during the period between this and the rise of the
Roman Catholic Church. The church used its position as a trans-national organisation to limit the means of warfare. The
989 Peace of God (extended in
1033) ruling protected noncombatants, agragarian and economic facilities, and the property of the church from war. The
1027 Truce of God also tried to prevent violence between
Christians. The
Second Lateran Council in
1139 prohibited the use of
crossbows against other christians, although it did not prevent its use against non-christians.
The development of
firearms led to an increase in the devastation of war. The brutality of wars during this period led to efforts to formalise the rules of war, with humane treatment for
prisoners of war or wounded, as well as rules to protect non-combatants and the
pillaging of their property. However during the period until the beginning of the 19th century few formal arms control agreements were recorded, except theoretical proposals and those imposed on defeated armies.
One treaty which was concluded was the
Strasbourg Agreement of
1675. This is the first international agreement limiting the use of
chemical weapons, in this case, poison bullets. The treaty was signed between
France and
GermanyThe
1817 Rush-Bagot Treaty between the
United States and the
United Kingdom was the first arms control treaty of what can be considered the modern industrial era, leading to the demilitarisation of the
Great Lakes and
Lake Champlain region of
North America. This was followed by the
1871 Treaty of Washington which led to total demilitarisation.
The industrial revolution led to the increasing mechanisation of warfare, as well as rapid advances in the development of firearms; the increased potential of devastation (which was seen in the battlefields of
World War I) led to
Tsar Nicholas II of Russia calling together the leaders of 26 nations for the
First Hague Conference in
1899. The Conference led to the signing of the
Hague Convention (of 1899) that led to rules of declaring and conducting warfare as well as the use of modern weaponry, and also led to the setting up of the
Permanent Court of Arbitration.
A
Second Hague Conference was called in
1907 leading to additions and amendments to the original 1899 agreement. A Third Hague Conference was called for
1915, but this was abandoned due to the
First World War.
After the First World War the
League of Nations was set up which attempted to limit and reduce arms. However the enforcement of this policy was not effective. Various
naval conferences were held during the period between the First and Second World Wars to limit arms.
The
1925 Geneva Conference led to the banning of
chemical weapons (as toxic gases) during war as part of the
Geneva Protocol. The
1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact, whilst ineffective, attempted for "providing for the renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy".
After
World War II the
United Nations was set up as a body to promote world peace. In
1957 the
International Atomic Energy Agency was set up to monitor the proliferation of
nuclear technology, including that of
nuclear weapons. The
1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was signed to prevent further spread of nuclear weapons technology to countries outside the five that already possessed them: the
United States, the
Soviet Union,
Great Britain,
France and
China.
The
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) between the United States and Soviet Union in the late 1960s/early 1970s led to further weapons control agreements. The SALT I talks led to the
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and an
Interim Strategic Arms Limitation Agreement (see
SALT I, both in
1972. The
SALT II talks started in
1972 leading to agreement in
1979. Due to the Soviet Union's invasion of
Afghanistan the United States never ratified the treaty, however the agreement was honoured by both sides.
The
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was signed between the United States and Soviet Union in
1987 and ratified in
1988, leading to an agreement to destroy all
missiles with ranges from 500 to 5,500 kilometres.
The
1993 Chemical Weapons Convention was signed banning the manufacture and use of
chemical weapons.
The
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties were signed, as
START I and
START II by the US and Soviet Union further restricting weapons. This was further moved on by the
Treaty on Strategic Offensive Reductions.
The
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was signed in
1996 banning all nuclear explosions in all environments, for military or civilian purposes.
Some of the more important international arms control agreements follow:
*
Washington Naval Treaty,
1922 (as part of the
naval conferences)
*
Geneva Protocol on chemical and biological weapons, 1925 and its two augumentations:
**
Biological Weapons Convention,
1972**
Chemical Weapons Convention,
1993*
Outer Space Treaty,
1967*
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,
1968*
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty,
1972*
Environmental Modification Convention,
1976*
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty,
1987*
Missile Technology Control Regime (
MTCR),
1987*
Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe,
1992*
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (
START I),
1994*
Wassenaar Arrangement,
1996*
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty,
1996*
Open Skies Treaty,
2002*
Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (
SORT),
2003*
Randall Forsberg, ed.,
Arms Control Reporter 1995-2005, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995â€"2004.
*
Wheeler-Bennett, Sir John Disarmament and security since Locarno 1925-1931; being the political and technical background of the general diarmament conference, 1932, New York, Howard Fertig, 1973.
*
Gun politics*
Naval conference*
Nuclear disarmament
