General and complete disarmament and defence policies

It may seem strange to expect defence ministries and military alliances to care about reducing arms on the path to total disarmament, but there are at least two good reasons why they should. First are their own stated aims; it would be a rare defence ministry these days that defined its mission as to make war and destroy things. More typically, these institutions claim that their military activities are designed to preserve the peace and they commit themselves to act within the framework of international law, including United Nations principles. Logically, then, they should respect the United Nations goal of general and complete disarmament (GCD) in no less than Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which validates selfdefence. Secondly and more practically, to start getting rid of weapons, you need people who understand weapons and can destroy them safely. This is obvious in cases like chemical weapons disposal, but it can also be surprisingly hard and expensive to dismantle a tank or even destroy rifles.

Related Subject(s): Disarmament