Disarmament and Arms Control (7

Arguments)
The case in favour of Disarmament and Arms Control stands supported on the
following grounds:

(i) Armaments lead to War, Disarmament can lead to Peace:

All the people of the world want peace and they believe that since armaments
lead to war, disarmament can lead to peace. Armaments lead to armament race
and armament race leads to war. Hence armaments constitute the cause of war
and by eliminating the cause through disarmament, war can be eliminated.

Disarmament, as such, constituents a direct approach to peace and arms control

constitutes advance measures and remedies against war. As Coheen observes,
“Armaments aggravate tension and fear among nations. By releasing tension and
fear, disarmament should facilitate and strengthen the process of peaceful
settlement.”

(ii) Armaments lead to Militarism which leads to War:

It is held that armaments make war not only physically possible but also politically
probable. Armaments encourage militarism and militarism leads to tensions and
fear. Rather than creating a sense of security, armaments in the ultimate form,
always create a feeling of insecurity, give rise to mutual jealousy and rivalry, and
thereby make the situation so tense that countries often get involved in wars and
armed conflicts.

(iii) Disarmament can reduce many tensions in International

Relations:
Destruction of instruments of war can secure peace. By ending the
instrumentalities of war, disarmament can end war, “It is believed that by doing
away with one of the typical manifestations of the struggle for power (armament
race) on the international scene, one can do away with the typical efforts of that
struggle international anarchy and war.”—Morgenthau
(iv) Economic Arguments in favour of Disarmament and Arms
Control:
A very strong and potent argument in favour of Disarmament and Arms Control is
that through disarmament the humankind can save a very large amount of funds,
which is currently being wasted on the fruitless and dangerous production of
armaments. These funds can be used for human welfare and developmental
purposes.

Disarmament can release huge economic resources which can be used for
securing the developmental needs of all the people of world. “A reduction in
nation’s armaments releases sizable funds, which could be transferred to
programmes designed to improve the general welfare of that nation’s citizens. In
the timeless dilemma of choosing between guns and butter, the advocates of
arms reduction opt for the latter.” —Wolfe and Couloumbis

(v) Need of Peace Race in place of Arms Race:

“Peace race” and not “armament race” is what humankind really needs. “It is
really an irony that when millions of people in several countries of the globe are
perishing due to hunger and disease, many countries are spending a huge
proportion of their incomes and resources on the production of armaments.”

(vi) Moral argument in favour of Disarmament and Arms

Control:
Another strong and philosophically most effective argument in favour of
disarmament is the moral argument. It holds that war is morally wrong, and so is
the preparation of war. War is evil and immoral because it involves killings. Since
armaments are the means of war, these are also evil. In-fact armaments
production is the beginning of the immoral process of war. It is always rational
and moral to nip the evil in the bud. Elimination of war demands the elimination of
arms and armament race.

(vii) Disarmament is a Universal Objective:

A practical argument, and indeed a very strong argument, in favour of
disarmament is that the present craze for armaments is aggravating further the
MAD situation and is making humankind more and more dependent upon
machines, or more specifically on war machines. It has increased the risk of an
all destructive accidental war.

It is a recognized fact that when machines start ruling men, they escape control
and run rampant. The growing dangers of modern electronic warfare pose the
biggest danger to humankind from an accidental war leading to total destruction.
The need, therefore, is to take timely action in favour of Disarmament and Arms
Control and save humankind from the present dangerously posed MAD situation
in international relations. All these arguments together build a strong case in
favour of Disarmament and Arms Control. History of Efforts towards
Disarmament and Arms Control.