Disarmament Activities Research Articles

BİRLEŞMİŞ MİLLETLER PERSPEKTİFİNDEN YAPAY ZEKÂ TEKNOLOJİSİNDE SİLAHSIZLANMA SORUNU: OTONOM SİLAHLAR VE KÜRESEL GÜVENLİK

The weapons that have self-controlling capacity and are equipped with the technology to independently choose and destroy a target are called autonomous weapons. Presently, autonomous weapon technology is developed to contribute to the defence and offensive capacities of states and restructure their armies. However, there is a common concern that the quality of autonomous weapons to make decisions in the international arena independent of humans may cause a global security problem. In this respect, the United Nations (UN) supports disarmament by holding meetings and issuing reports to ensure that these weapons are controlled while under development. 
 The present article intends to clarify the activities of the UN which aim to control autonomous weapon technology. The first part of the article defines autonomous weapons in detail and then evaluates their possible benefits and threats. Later on, the article provides an outline of the disarmament endeavours with regard to autonomous weapons. The final part, on the other hand, discusses the disarmament activities of the UN as to autonomous weapons. In this sense, the official documents of the UN were selected as primary sources in revealing the global aspect of the disarmament struggles concerning autonomous weapons. This article, therefore, uses the document analysis method. In consequence of the document analysis, it was concluded that more data were required to establish a consensus as to the performance of a wider disarmament activities under the UN regarding autonomous weapons.

Peace: a history of movements and ideas

Veteran scholar and peace activist David Cortright offers a definitive history of the human striving for peace and an analysis of its religious and intellectual roots. This authoritative, balanced, and highly readable volume traces the rise of peace advocacy and internationalism from their origins in earlier centuries through the mass movements of recent decades: the pacifist campaigns of the 1930s, the Vietnam antiwar movement, and the waves of disarmament activism that peaked in the 1980s. Also explored are the underlying principles of peace - nonviolence, democracy, social justice, and human rights - all placed within a framework of 'realistic pacifism'. Peace brings the story up-to-date by examining opposition to the Iraq War and responses to the so-called 'war on terror'. This is history with a modern twist, set in the context of current debates about 'the responsibility to protect', nuclear proliferation, Darfur, and conflict transformation.

ADVANCING THE GOALS OF NPT ARTICLE VI

International technical cooperation on issues relevant to the challenges of nuclear disarmament can demonstrate commitment to obligations under Article VI of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, strengthen the security of fissile materials and weapons, and develop technical approaches to support more ambitious disarmament activities in the future. Including non-nuclear weapon states would ensure that their views are taken into account and would invest them in developing solutions to key challenges. This article discusses three areas for technical cooperation that would build on past activities and that could produce such benefits as improved protection, control, and accounting of nuclear weapons and fissile material; enhanced transparency for nuclear weapon complexes; and mechanisms for international management of sensitive civilian nuclear facilities. International cooperation in each of these areas could provide a technical basis for pursuing possible future disarmament negotiations and substantively demonstrate commitment to Article VI.

The Nuclear Weapons Inheritance Project: Student-to-student dialogues and interactive peer education in disarmament activism

The Nuclear Weapons Inheritance Project is a student run and student initiated project founded in 2001 with the purpose of increasing awareness of health effects of nuclear policies and empowering university students to take action in a local and international context. The project uses dialogues to discuss nuclear disarmament with university students and a method of interactive peer education to train new trainers. The project has met more than 1500 students in nuclear weapon states in dialogue and trained about 400 students from all over the world. This article describes the methods and results of the project and discuss how the experience of the project can be used in other projects seeking to increase awareness of a topic and to initiate action on social injustice.

Gender Roles and Nuclear Disarmament Activism,1954–1965

Gender Roles and Nuclear Disarmament Activism,1954–1965

Status of the Pangea International Repository Feasibility Studies

ABSTRACTThe potential technical, scientific, safety, security, environmental and economic advantages of implementation of deep geologic repositories for the disposal of nuclear waste within an international framework were outlined in papers from the IAEA and from the Pangea organization over the past three years. Of increasing importance are the security and non-proliferation benefits which could result from having closely supervised centralized repositories for declared surplus fissile materials resulting from disarmament activities in nuclear weapon states.The Pangea concept is for repositories sited on technical and safety grounds independent of national boundaries. The sites would be in geologic formations situated in flat, stable, arid regions, where the convincing demonstration of long-term safety should be easier to achieve. Pangea identified several potential host regions of the world which warrant further investigation of their suitability for an international repository. As yet a formal feasibility study has been initiated only in Australia. This was allocated first priority due to the vastness of the region with potentially suitable geology, also because of its stable governmental system, its strong environmental record and non-proliferation credentials. Australia also has a strong anti-nuclear movement, no nuclear power plants, but an important uranium mining industry.Hence progress to date in Australia has been mixed. Political resistance has culminated in legislation in Western Australia prohibiting the construction and operation of a repository for the disposal of imported nuclear waste, unless approved by both houses of the WA Parliament. Within the scientific, technical and business communities, there has been much greater readiness to objectively weigh up the pros and cons of hosting an international disposal facility. The public reaction has been mixed, with some individuals and communities strongly opposing the concept whilst others are prepared to seek information before judging the case on its merits.Meanwhile, on the world stage, the generic concept of international disposal facilities continues to be elaborated - including defining better the roles which such facilities could play in management and disposition of surplus weapons material. In addition contacts are being strengthened with potential users of such facilities and actions being taken to intensify Pangea's activities in other countries identified as having potential host regions for a high-isolation repository of the type proposed by Pangea.

The organization of social action.

AbstractThis review provides a comprehensive and integrated framework for the processes of social action and empowerment at the level of the individual, the group, and the community. Concepts from personality, social, community and organizational psychology are used as the basis for understanding the complex processes involved in empowerment and social action. These two concepts are organized and integrated in meaningful and useful ways that open up new ways of looking at social action and social organization.The development of a framework for empowerment as it relates to social action is vital to understanding these concepts (Perkins & Zimmerman, 1995; Speer & Hughey, 1995; Zimmerman, 1995). In this paper, I provide a framework for the structural and functional properties of empowerment and social action at the level of the individual, group, and community by integrating research from peace, community, political, and organizational psychology. Community psychology has described some of the interrelations of these processes at the three social levels (Fawcett et al., 1994, 1995; McMillan, Florin, Stevenson, Kerman, & Mitchell, 1995; Rich, Edelstein, Hallman, & Wandersman, 1995) as has organizational psychology (Ragins & Sundstrom, 1989). My intent is not so much to describe different types of activism in detail but to relate the structural and functional properties of various types of empowerment and social action at these social levels and to integrate them in a unifying framework which, hopefully, will broaden our understanding of empowerment and social action.Concepts of EmpowermentEmpowerment, psychological empowerment, and social action need to be distinguished from one another. Empowerment refers to the process by which people, organizations, and communities gain mastery over their lives (Wolff, 1987). It becomes evident through social power at the individual, organizational, and community levels (Speer & Hughey, 1995). At the level of the individual, empowerment is the person's freedom to decide what goals to pursue and the capacity to pursue them without excessive frustration (Prilleltensky, 1994). Empowerment is associated with feelings of competence to change a situation and with expectations of positive outcomes for one's efforts (Florin & Wandersman, 1990; Prilleltensky, 1994; Zimmerman & Rappaport, 1988). Psychological empowerment is the connection between a sense of personal competence, a desire for, and a willingness to take social action (Zimmerman & Rappaport, 1988). It is a more limited concept than empowerment in that an effect or impact need not occur. Psychological empowerment can lead to actual empowerment when environmental support is available. Social action is participation in social issues to influence their outcome for the benefit of people and the community. Social action can, under favourable circumstances, produce actual empowerment, impact, or social change.Zimmerman (1995) viewed psychological empowerment as including not only intrapersonal components, such as self-perceptions of abilities, but also interactional ones, such as the individual's skills in dealing with the sociopolitical environment. The intrapersonal component includes the individual's perceived control, competence, and efficacy to influence a social or political system (Zimmerman, Israel, Schulz, & Checkoway, 1992). The interactional component includes the skills, awareness, and understanding that people have about their community and sociopolitical issues, including social norms, values, and supports which enable them to master a social or political system. Behavioural components include actions taken to influence the social and political environment including participation in community organizations and activities. Intrapersonal and interactional components of empowerment are important determinants of community participation (Zimmerman et al., 1992; Zimmerman & Rappaport, 1988), disarmament activism (Horvath, 1996b; Nemiroff & McKenzie-Mohr, 1992), and effectiveness in the workplace (Spreitzer, 1995). …

Lessons Learned and Unsolved Public Health Problems After Large-Scale Disasters

This paper examines the considerable medical and psychological problems that ensue after disasters in which massive populations are affected for extended and sometimes unknown time periods. The organization of disaster response teams after large-scale disasters is based on experiences as a medical specialist at Chernobyl immediately after this catastrophe. Optimal ways of dealing with the immediate medical and logistical demands as well as long-term public health problems are explored with a particular focus on radiation disasters. Other lessons learned from Chernobyl are explained. Current concerns involve the constant threat of a disaster posed by aging nuclear facilities and nuclear and chemical disarmament activities. The strategies that have been used by various groups in responding to a disaster and dealing with medical and psychological health effects at different disaster stages are evaluated. The emergence of specialized centers in the former Soviet Union to study long-term health effects after radiation accidents are described. Worldwide, there has been relatively little attention paid to mid- and long-term health effects, particularly the psychological stress effects. Problems in conducting longitudinal health research are explored. The use of a mobile diagnostic and continuously operating pre-hospital triage system for rapid health screening of large populations at different stages after a large-scale disaster is advisable. The functional systems of the body to be observed at different stages after a radiation disaster are specified. There is a particularly strong need for continued medical and psychosocial evaluation of radiation-exposed populations over an extended time and a need for international collaboration among investigators.

Nuclear weapons concerns, agency beliefs, and social responsibility values in disarmament activism.

This study examined the roles of attitudes and beliefs in determining disarmament activism. It investigated the contributions of nuclear weapons concerns, perceptions of control, and social responsibility values to the determination of antinuclear activism beyond the effects of attitudes and attitude strength. It was found that concerns about the danger of nuclear weapons, perceptions of personal control, and social responsibility values accounted for a larger proportion of the variance of antinuclear activism than antinuclear attitudes and attitude strength combined. The findings were discussed in terms of the nature of attitudes and beliefs and the relevance of these factors to involvement in peace and other social issues in a global community.

The military history of the Third World since 1945: a reference guide

Acknowledgments General Military Patterns within the Third World Since 1945 An Overview of the Effects of the Korean, Vietnamese, Arab-Israeli, and Desert Storm Operations International Peacekeeping and Disarmament Activities The Middle East The Indian Ocean Area Southeast Asia East Asia North Africa Central Africa Eastern and Western Africa Caribbean Central America South America The Pacific Area Appendix: Important Events Since 1945 Bibliography Index

Arms Control Fellowship

The U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) has announced that it is accepting applications for visiting scholars under the William C. Foster Fellows Program for 1986–1987. This program is designed to give specialists in the physical sciences and other disciplines relevant to ACDA activities an opportunity to participate actively in the arms control and disarmament activities of this agency and to give ACDA the perspective and expertise that such people can offer.

War concerns in Europe

Observers note a decline in European disarmament activism in 1982. The deployment of Pershing II and cruise missiles may reverse this trend.

The League’s Disarmament Activities—and The Washington Conference

The League’s Disarmament Activities—and The Washington Conference