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Disarmament And Arms Control

Paper Type: Free Essay Subject: Politics
Wordcount: 4015 words Published: 4th May 2017

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It is an assignment of our group of three people which is going to say about the UN implementing on disarmament and arms control. This assignment will tell you specific thing of the effectiveness of the implementation of UN history and ongoing future. We saw it as the interesting topics because it is a main strategic program for UN in order to process in conflict prevention, peacemaking, and peace building operation. Failure of controlling arms during the era of League of Nations had broken out another war which led to the collapse of League of Nations. This has made UN consider the disarmament and arms control as a main tactics for UN to prevent the breaking of another war. However it is a crucial policy for UN, this is not mean UN always succeed on it. Thus, it makes us have a strong feeling to know whether the United Nations is effective in implementing this policy or not.

Introduction

The devastations around the part of the world, especially in Europe that stamped from the hostility among the country drove to their countries of human suffering and environment degradation. The main instrument that has played the significant role in the confrontation, deputation and hostility was weapon. Weapon has invented, produced and update through generation; and weapons in the past were used in order to deal with the conflict and disputation rather than discussion and negotiation. Weapons did not provide any privilege beside killed them, threated and wounded them. As we all have well-known the two great worlds (WWI & WWII) have released the great suffering that has been considered as the worst experience for human being because of its devastation, disruption and demolition. To response to all the threats to the world, drove some of the leaders of the country to sign, to negotiate, to discuss and to agree until the emergence of many agreements like Treaty, convention and other conferences. Experiencing of the Great World (WWI), drove to the emergence of one League called the League of Nation by Woodrow Wilson as the architecture. Anyway, the implanting of the League of the Nation was too weak to prevent the outbreak of the Second World War; moreover, this League still could not forbid the utility of weapons that release great threat and suffering to human being. One of the most powerful International Governmental Organization that has stepped in to replace the failure of the League of Nation was the United Nation. In this essay, we will discuss the implementation of the United Nations that concern with the Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) through the Treaty, commission, convention and conference that it has issued, proposed and organize; but one the interesting task that UN has done and has been implementing through international law in world politics was the international law of world security that focus on the UN’s implementation on World of Disarmament and Arm Control. World of Disarmament and Arm Control have been simultaneously created alongside the creation of the United Nation. All the member states have regarded this UN’s implementation as the most significant role to keep peace, and human suffering and to prevent the hostility, conflict and disputation; however, at the meantime of its implementation, one question has been asked whether the United Nations is effective in implementing international disarmament and arm control. This assignment will tell you specific thing of the effectiveness of the implementation of UN history and ongoing future. We saw it as the interesting topics because it is a main strategic program for UN in order to process in conflict prevention, peacemaking, and peace building operation.

Disarmament and Arms Control

Disarmament

After facing such international security threats in 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt has come up with idea of Quarantine which referred to the spread of fascism ideology around the world. After the end of World War I, United States was slowly to get rid of its own isolation, only gradually provide the supply of weapon to its allies, while restricting exports to the Axis powers. Finally, another war just came with the attack of the Perl Harbor by Japanese in which pack with German forces. This war had expanded like an epidemic disease throughout Europe and Asia which required more than a vaccine to eliminate this disease. At last, the creation of United Nations finally began with the end of World War II aiming to avoid another World War. In order to avoid the root causes of war, United Nations had come up with the idea of reduction or eradication of Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) in term of disarmament method in every corner of the world.

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Today the proliferation of WMD considered as threats which could develop into a cancer (WW III) and also could endanger small countries such developing countries. Beside this cancer, it also increased the capability of non-state actors such as private security company, pirates, and so on; in other word, increased the supply or export-import of weapons around the world which led to the conflicts. Imagine if all the non-state actors assembled in one organization and what would happen? It might be another world war. For the sake of world’s security, United Nations tried every means just to reduce or eradicate these root causes in the name of disarmament including disarmament treaties and enforcement. However, while doing this, still have some countries tried every means to use these treaties as their pretext to go to war for the sake of their own interests. As the case in Iraq in 2001, the United States use this disarmament enforcement as its pretext by saying that Iraq had developed nuclear weapons program which violet the treaties particularly the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty. According to Weiss, some delegations insisted that it is very difficult to take the grave step on authorized the use of armed forced by the United Nations or any other members including United States agreed that there was no automaticity in 1441 resolution. It meant that Iraq’s response was failed to comply with the UN’s resolution which required unrestricted access to any factors in Iraq (including Iraq’s WMD program by UNMOVIC and IAEA, but this couldn’t lead to the use of armed force against Iraq. As a result, attempted by the US to obtain a specific pretext or authority to go to war was fail because of French’s veto and with less than three votes beyond US’s proposed resolution itself. Therefore United States came back again with new resolution (678) on the UNSC in 1990, and another resolution (687) in 1991, arguing that the invasion of Iraq over Kuwait have to be ejected in order to maintain peace and security to Kuwait. Latter, US imposed such an obligation on Iraq just to destroy its WMD; Iraq had failed to revive the 678 resolution, thus, the intervened of US on Iraq. In other word, US use this pretext to go to war with Iraq for its own sack, not for the sack of World’s security.

Moreover, another failure of the United Nations in disarmament operation in Mozambique was ONUMOZ operation. This operation had been serious consequences particularly to the South Africa. It was an impossible task to disarm all armed individually, but the weapons which Mozambique obtain and were earmarked officially to stop using weapons could have been destroyed. ONUMOZ’s failure was the weak mandate because it didn’t even say what disarmament should be involved, and the principle for its success. Thus it wasn’t clearly about the different of demobilization, so the UN was failed in providing the political and financial resources to make sure that the weapon were collected and were use in proper way (self-defense). An increasing of new weapons, not replacing old weapons, it has posed the main security threat inside Mozambique.

On the other hand, UN has successfully achieved in disarmament treaties in east-west such things like INF (Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces in 1987): the two superpowers have to destroy 2600 missiles. By the 1990, CFE (Conventional Forces in Europe) treaty: Warsaw Pact government and 22 NATO agree to reduce on phased that leave the two sides (alliances) with equal area size between the Urals and the Atlantic. As a result, USSR and Warsaw Pact have left CFE treaty in the need of their own revision. Then there was a START-1(strategic arms reduction) treaty. This treaty was to reduce or eventually eradicate the strategic missiles and long-range bomber aircraft in the number of 6500 on each superpower (US and USSR) by 2001. After succeed in disarmament complementing, START-2 was created which allow the US to withdraw from the anti-ballistic-missile in 1972 and allow the US to develop missile defense systems.

On April 1990, there was an initiative of Egypt’s disarmament which proposed to the UN by Egyptian’s President, Mubarak. This proposal was proposed in the aim of prohibitive all weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East because it won’t affect only the region security threat but also the international security and peace which irritate the unstable situation. They believed that creating this zone would reduce tension and increase the ability to solved the political conflict in the region, because it would reduce the security concern of others countries on this region. Unfortunately, it couldn’t concrete disarmament measure are intimidating due to the awareness of political strife still exist in Middle East. However, after facing the outbreak of hostilities; as a result, it had driven them to seize the initiative immediately. Finally, we can say that this initiative was one of the successful disarmament treaties inside the UN.

Although the UN has failed many times in implementing disarmament agreements, there was also considerable number of reduction in conventional weapons and a rather effective bans upon biological and chemical weapons; in other words, weapons of mass destruction.

Arms Control

According to information of the past time, especially during the Cold War and post-Cold War, the world’s norms of disarmament and arm control has been issued for many treaties, committee, and commission for the regulation of armaments. United Nation has been playing the significant role in the world in an attempt to avoid the war by issued a large numbers of treaties and conventions that concern with the World of Disarmament and Arm Control, As the minority of the results that the United Nation achieved from all of that implementations, especially the Commission or Treaty of World Disarmament; meanwhile, all the states around the world still using, producing, and selling the weapon; the UN still express their requests and attempts in safeguarding the global through the commendations of world Arm Control. Arm Control is the procession of controlling the limits of arm manufacture, transferring, using testing and selling. The US and USSR were two super power that spread their influences of ideologies to other state in order to enlarge their power. As the result of the competition in spreading the ideologies in attempt to attract some of countries into their block as their alliances, they have improved and proliferated not only the economic potential but also other sectors especially the army and the weapon. In order to prevent the war that can march to the global devastated, the emergence of one phrase “arms control” has been used in the attempt of reducing and limiting the competition in the arm-proliferation between the two superpower. Indeed, this phrase has been spreading almost the countries in the world and the members of the UN Charter in the means of constraining threats and regulating the acquisition, testing, numbers, ratios, types, location, deployment, spread, or use of current or prospective armaments. The most concern of the weapon of mass destruction that challenge the lives of humanitarian and the global environment are the nuclear, biological, and the chemical. Small arm and light weapon is also the part of UN Program of Action, all these treaties, committees, commissions and programs have been signed subsequently due to the demands and proposals from the state and the member of the United Nation. A large numbers of reasons reflect the ineffective and incompetent of United Nation in implementing through the international arm control. The main point is that NU has not been the chief architect of arm control and disarmament and it have been regarded as an actor play some key roles as the proposal or the recommendation since the previous till the present time; the General Assembly have little substantial power and the UNSC always deadlocked. Because of the General frequent falls of UN decision-making, UN have put the weight to the UN Secretary-General from one generation to generation; and the important thing is that the Secretary-General is not able to issue judgments and edicts against Member States beside the recommendation and proposal. As the results of these factors, some of the key treaty and multilateral regime like the NPT, CWC, BTWC, and NWFZ have negotiated outside the UN framework, such as the Conference on Disarmament. We have regarded some of the proposal from some of member states but not UN such as the proposal of cessation of nuclear testing by India in 1957 and the five-point plan to end of producing and testing of nuclear weapon by United State in January 1957. The United Nation has served as a forum for number of processes such as the UN Programme of Action on the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons that this program has the full support of all the Member states during the negotiation in July 2001 (Lewis, &Thakur, 2004); anyway, according to the report of Aders (2007), the huge number of small arm and light weapon have been estimated that there have been more than 600 million that have been circulating, stocking, and owing as the private possession; and more than 90 states around the world have been producing for more several small arms and light weapon. Subsequently, UN’s program and mission have refused when a small group of states including China, Cuba, India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Russia, and the United States always refused to budge their position in the implementing of small arms reduction and illicit small arms and they have also opposed the further development of UN program. All these states have argued that all the states should complete the previous commitment rather that pursuing the new one (Aders, 2007). Furthermore, UN has been considered as the instrument like the New Agenda Coalition (NAC), for instance, has used the NU as the funnel through which to advance the twin agendas of non-proliferation and disarmament. If we look to the previous some global treaties on arms control, we will see the incapability of UN in implementing international disarmament and arms control. For instance, Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapon as well-known as the “NPT” was concluded in June 1968 and entered into force on March 5, 1970; the NPT has been best-known as the centerpiece part of multilateral effort at arms control. Among XI articles, article I obligate all the nuclear-weapon states undertook, “not to transfer to any recipient whatsoever unclear weapons or other nuclear explosive, or indirectly; and not in any way to assist, encourage, or induce any non-nuclear weapon State to manufacture or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, or control over such weapons or explosive devices” (UN’s charter). The five members that well-known as the nuclear-weapon states were the United States, the Soviet Union, the UK, France, and China; article II obligate all non-nuclear-weapon states to undertook, “not to receive the transfer from any transferor whatsoever of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices of control over such weapons or explosive devices directly, or indirectly; not to manufacture or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices; and not to seek or receive any assistance in the manufacture of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices” (UN’s charter). Anyway the “second generation” or “opaque” states liked Israel, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Argentina, Brazil, and South Africa still developed nuclear weapons. The post-Cold War year was regarded the incompetence of the parties of the Treaty along with the UN, who could not prevent from the manufacturing of nuclear weapons from some states which were or were not the parties of the Treaty. As did the Pakistan and India, for instance, both countries demonstrated to the world of nuclear weapons testing; which was considered as the states that were eligible to join the regime as non-nuclear-weapon states (Scott, 2004). Anyway, India, which was not intended to join the Treaty as the non-nuclear-weapon state has demonstrated its power by testing the nuclear weapons and declaring as one of the nuclear weapon States; in reality, the resolves of preventing this country from unclear manufacturing was impossible and could not be denied (Scott, 2004); this declaration was regarded as the ineffective of UN in implementing international arm control. One of the implementations of UN was called the United Nation Special Commission (UNSCOM), which was one commission that was conducted in order to inspect the process of Iraqi nuclear program, was officially terminated by Resolution 1284 (1999) after the UN arms inspectors were denied access to Iraq in December 1998. The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) subsequently replaced the UNSCOM, but still this commission could not resolve the problems with Iraq peacefully; eventually, US backed by UK and other went to war in early 2003 without UN authorization this reflect that UN did not do the good job, duty and decision. One of the ineffective of UN’s treaty was the withdrawal of North Korea from the NPT and declared as state of nuclear weapon. Moreover, Iran which had signed the NPT in 1968 and ratified 1970; this country had failed the obligation of the Treaty by using, storing of nuclear material; and one of the countries that behind the nuclear program aided of Iran was Russia, which was well-known as one of five permanent members of NUSC and also was one of architects which pursued for NPT. This failure has regarded that the ineffective and incompetent of the United Nation stemmed from the reluctant of the UN’s members to join, to cooperate and to respect the rule like Russia as an example, which failed the crux of the obligations in article I of Treaty; and UN itself could not fulfill the implementation to run the Treaty like India, North Korea, Pakistan, Israel, and Iran as example. Anyway, a large of UN’s members that have signed in the Treaty and accepted other conventions, commissions and conferences still maintain to fulfill its respects and encourage the UN to strengthen its duties. Many countries has been using nuclear power for positive meaning like nuclear factories in Japan have been using for power supply; and either for other countries that have followed and respected the treaty like in article V, for instance that states that the parties undertook to ensure that the potential benefits from peaceful applications of nuclear explosions would be made available to non-nuclear states as a low charge and on a nondiscriminatory basis. One of other Global Treaties on Arms Control that focus on the weapons of mass destruction was the Chemical and Biological Weapon Passing. Biological Weapons Convention negotiated in the UN Committee on Disarmament came into force in 1975. One hundred parties agreed to the treaty in reducing, eliminating and limiting, but some of the countries were suspected to possess such weapon for violent purposes. There were 167 states that signed in the Chemical Weapon Convention, but some of the countries like Iraq, Libya, Syria, Egypt, North Korea, and Israel still used such weapon; this reflect the successful and also the failure of UN’s implementation that could not impose all the refused state to respect the treaties and also reflected its ineffective to dispose of all this chemical weapons at those states. One last Global treaties and arms control was the Banning land mine that was considered as the weapon of mass destruction; the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines (ICBL) was launched in 1992, two years after the spread of using this weapon in some countries like Angola, Afghanistan, Cambodia, and Bosnia. To this convention, more than one hundred states signed the treaty except two of powerful countries that refused to sign were the United State and China; consequently, UN could not do anything to these two states to sign the treaty in order to eliminate the land mines of these states. Four decade of implementation of the Global Treaties on Arms Control, according to federation of American scientists (2012), the countries that have total arsenal (inventory includes non-deployed weapons as well as stockpiles) such as Russia (10,000), US (8,500), France (300), China (240), UK (225), Pakistan (90-100), India (80-100), Israel (80), and North Korea (fewer than 10). All this result reflects exactly the ineffective of United Nation in implementing international disarmament and arms control.

Conclusion

In conclusion, UN still has reflected it’s ineffective and incapability in fulfilling and implementing its tasks in international disarmament and arm control. As the result, not only the UN but also all the member states that have been being feared the threats of weapon’s utilize, especially the Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD). The ineffective of UN stemmed from the internal and external factor. Internal factors are the reluctant of its members to corporate, especially the death locked of veto power on draft solutions in the United Nation Security Council, the refuse from the members to UN’s commission, the weaken system of UN in imposing the law to activate and the recommendation of Secretary-General that has been regard as a spokesperson with non-power. The external factors are trading and circulating of weapon and explosive devices in black market, the spread of groups of terrorism, and criminal organization. Another factors that have played as the major challenge to the growth of the international law in disarmament and arm control and also UN’s potential such as the remaining un-ratified of the establishing local nuclear-weapon-free zones, the incapability of addressing the nuclear-weapon-delivery systems, missile defense system, or space weapons which were multilateral disarmament treaties, and the significant obstacles and competing interests have continued to delay the conclusion of an Arms Trade Treaty and also the beginning of negotiations on a multilateral fissile material treaty (Kane, 2012). After providing and surveying of all the evidences and concerns, we can conclude that the UN’s implementation still reflect its ineffective in international disarmament and arm control; and so on the concerns still exist in the opinion of human being to threats that can be occur simultaneously the development of modern weapon and explosive devices; who can guarantee that the other Great War will not be existed? Although UN yet has enough fulfill its implementation through these concerns and obstacles, but it still continues its strong attempt to reduced or eliminate this serious problem through the locales for discussion of arms control and disarmament issue, including the Conference on Disarmament, its First Committee, the Disarmament Commission, special session that manage by General Assembly and proposal from the Secretary-General.

 

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