Global approaches to conventional weapons issues

Questions of the regulation and reduction of conventional arms and armed forces have been on the disarmament agenda of the United Nations since the Organization was created, with varying degrees of emphasis. In the 1950s, the General Assembly dealt with the subject in the context of ways and means to achieve the regulation, limitation and balanced reduction of all armed forces and all armaments and to achieve general and complete disarmament. Later, the emphasis tended to be on nuclear rather than on conventional arms. However, the need to address conventional disarmament in a systematic way was increasingly recognized throughout the 1980s, and developments in the 1990s have given impetus to this trend.

Related Subject(s): Disarmament