Reaching Critical Will

Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

Conference on Disarmament

General Assembly First Committee

UN Disarmament Commission

Special Session on Disarmament

Disarmament and Development
History of the issue at the United Nations

In June 1945, Article 26 of the Charter of the United Nations gave the Security Council the responsibility of regulating armaments through reducing military expenditures that diverted funds from development:

"In order to promote the establishment and maintenance of international peace and security with the least diversion for armaments of the world's human and economic resources, the Security Council shall be responsible for formulating, with the assistance of the Military Staff Committee referred to in Article 47, plans to be submitted to the Members of the United Nations for the establishment of a system for the regulation of armaments."
- Article 26, Charter of the United Nations

In 1970, at the request of the General Assembly), and with the assistance of an international group of experts, Secretary-General U Thant issued a report on the economic and social consequences of disarmament that identified economic and social costs of national arms expenditures. The costs were found to be particularly severe for developing countries. Secretary-General reports on the relationship between disarmament and development are now annual. The 2007 report can be found in document A/62/119.

In December 1980, the UNGA adopted resolution 35/142 B, entitled "Reduction of military budgets," which introduced the United Nations system for standardized reporting of military expenditures. The resolution recommended that all Member States should make use of the UN Instrument for Reporting Military Expenditures and report annually to the Secretary-General, and requested the Secretary-General to report on the matter to the General Assembly on an annual basis.

In 1984, the General Assembly requested that an international conference be held to undertake multilateral consideration of the relationship between disarmament and development. The 1987 International Conference on the Relationship between Disarmament and Development focused upon: defining the relationship between disarmament and development; examining the magnitude and consequences of military expenditure on the world economy and on development; and exploring ways to release resources for development through disarmament. Its action programme comprised a range of recommendations to be implemented by the United Nations, member states, and regional organizations. The Final Document, which was adopted by consensus, serves as the basis for the reappraisal undertaken by the Group of Governmental Experts.

The 1987 Conference took place during the Cold War, when military spending and the threat of nuclear disaster were at an all-time high. After the Cold War, the international community expected a "peace dividend" to emerge from cuts to defense budgets and a reduction of the size and scope of the military establishment. However, not every state reduced its military expenditure: according to Professor Michael D. Intriligator, "in tension areas in the Middle East, the Gulf, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and the Korean Peninsula, military spending did not go down, but [remained] relatively stable." China's defense budget actually increased significantly. It is arguable whether or not the peace dividend really occurred anywhere - any money that was diverted from military spending was used primarily for domestic agendas rather than overseas development assistance. Regardless, its effects if any were short lived, as the US and many other states began increasing their military spending again in the 1990s.

The 2004 Secretary-General Report on disarmament and development points out that global military expenditures are increasing at more than 5 percent annually. New weapon technologies, changing military doctrines, and the possibility of an arms race in outer space have inflated military budgets. The war against terror has consumed vast resources. Regional arms races gathered momentum after the Cold War, fueled by intra-state and international conflicts that erupted within and among the superpowers' geopolitical pawns after the United States and the Soviet Union left the battlefield. The end of the Cold War led to a decline in control over small arms and light weapons, while the increase in intra-state conflicts created a huge demand for them. Anti-personnel landmines leftover from these intra-state conflicts also continue to plague developing areas.

Meanwhile, the poverty gap widened during the 1990s, as the report further notes: "Underdevelopment and poverty continue to haunt a large number of nations. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report 2003, over 50 countries are poorer today than they were in 1990, human development indicators such as hunger, child mortality and primary school enrolment have worsened in some countries, and extreme poverty affects one fifth of humankind. In many countries, economic and social development has been thwarted by violent internal and regional conflicts, massive flows of refugees and internally displaced persons, problems of governance, illegal exploitation of conflict goods and natural resources, illicit trafficking of narcotics and weapons, and diseases such as HIV/AIDS."

In October 1998, the International Conference on Sustainable Disarmament for Sustainable Development was held in Belgium. Its Call for Action "welcomes recent initiatives by international, regional, national and local actors, both governmental and non-governmental from all regions of the industrialised and developing world, to control and reduce the flow and availability of small arms and light weapons" as a way to promote development.

In July 1999, a symposium on disarmament and development was jointly organized by the Department for Disarmament Affairs, the Department for Economic and Social Affairs, the Department for Peacekeeping Operations, and the United Nations Development Programme, in collaboration with Economists Allied for Arms Reduction, a non-governmental organization based in New York.

Since 1998, the UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security has adopted resolutions on the relationship between disarmament and development, which are subsequently adopted by the UNGA itself: "Stressing the importance of the symbiotic relationship between disarmament and development and the important role of security in this connection, and concerned at increasing global military expenditure, which could otherwise be spent on development needs," these resolutions urge "the international community to devote part of the resources made available by the implementation of disarmament and arms limitation agreements to economic and social development, with a view to reducing the ever widening gap between developed and developing countries." The resolutions also encourage the international community to refer to the contribution disarmament could make in meeting the Millennium Development Goals, and to "make greater efforts to integrate disarmament, humanitarian, and development activities."

From 1998 until 2001, the disarmament and development resolution was adopted without a vote in the First Committee and the UNGA. In 2002, it was adopted by a recorded vote of 156 in favour, 1 opposed (United States) and 4 abstentions (France, Israel, Monaco, and the United Kingdom). From 2003 to 2007, abstentions dropped from four to two, with only France and Israel maintaining their abstentions. The United States continues to oppose the resolution, arguing that disarmament and development are two distinct issues that should not be linked. It also insists it is not bound by the 1987 Final Document of the International Conference on the Relationship between Disarmament and Development, because it did not attend the conference. While the United Kingdom has voted in favor of the resolution for the last few years, it still does not acknowledge an automatic link between the disarmament and development. The United Kingdom also does not completely agree with the Group of Governmental Experts' findings, which it believes has not fully explained the complex relationship between disarmament and development.

The most recent of these resolutions, from the 2007 session, can be found in document A/C.1/62/L.50. It was adopted in the First Committee with a vote of 166 in favour, 1 opposed, 2 abstentions. France and the United Kingdom delivered explanations of vote.

Pursuant to General Assembly resolution 61/64, the Secretary-General submitted a report in 2007 on the relationship between disarmament and development, which "summarizes the activities recently undertaken by the partner departments and partner agency of the high-level Steering Group on Disarmament and Development in areas related to the subject. It also contains information received from Governments on the subject."

Reaching Critical Will monitors and reports on discussion in the General Assembly on the relationship between disarmament and development. Please view past editions of the First Committee Monitor to learn more about member states' views and initiatives.