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Arms Control

Fundamentally, and in the long run, the problem which is posed by the release of atomic energy is a problem of the ability of the human race to govern itself without war.
A report of a panel of consultants on disarmament of the Secretary of State, January 1953

On August 6 and 9, 1945, the blast of nuclear weapons launched by the United States instantly killed 40,000 people in Nagasaki and almost 100,000 people in Hiroshima in the only time a nation has used such monstrous force against another. Since the first atomic test explosion, the Earth has been blasted by nuclear tests 2,045 times.

Because weapons of mass destruction raise serious moral and practical issues, they have long been the focus of international treaties and agreements aimed to control their possession, development, and use.

The international community and the United Nations have done much in the past six decades to deter another catastrophic nuclear atrocity. The Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entered into force in 1970, and by 2002 there were 187 parties, making it a virtually universal ban on nuclear testing. The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) entered into force on December 5, 1994.

Today, one submarine can carry missiles and nuclear warheads that contain more destructive power than all the weapons used during World War II (1939-1945)
World Book Online Reference Center, 2006.

Chemical and biological have long since been discarded from use in the battlefield. Ever since the horrors of World War I, the nations of the world have predominantly agreed not to use chemical and biological weapons. The first real treaty opposing such use was the Geneva Protocol of 1925. Since then, the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention have established safeguards on the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons.

"...Every weapon that's ever been invented in history does get used eventually, maybe not immediately but eventually someone finds a rationale to use them..." - listen

Reverend Robert Moore, Executive Director, Coalition for Peace Action

Early Arms Control Agreements

Strasbourg Agreement - 1675 - Chemical (poison bullets)

The Strasbourg Agreement of 1675 was the first agreement to ban poison bullets. It was an accord between France and Germany.

Brussels Convention on the Law and Customs of War - 1874 - Chemical

The Brussels Declaration of 1874 was the first multilateral accord to address the use of chemical weapons.

1st Hague Peace Conference - 1899 - Chemical

The Hague Gas Declaration of 1899 issued by the first Hague peace conference banned "the use of projectiles, the sole object of which is the diffusion of asphyxiating or deleterious gases."

2nd Hague Peace Conference - 1907 - Chemical

The second Hague conference went much further than the first. Article 23 of the Annex of Convention IV prohibited the use of poisonous weapons. However, many nations still felt that this prohibition did not apply to gas weapons since the ban on gas weapons was made during the first conference.

Treaty of Versailles - 1919 - Chemical

The use of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases and all analogous liquids, materials or devices being prohibited, their manufacture and importation are strictly forbidden in Germany
Article 171, Treaty of Versailles

Washington Treaty on Use of Submarines and Gases in Wartime - 1922 - Chemical

Article V of the Washington Treaty prohibited the use of chemical weapons. The treaty was signed in February 1922 by Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States. It failed when the French legislature refused to ratify it.

Modern Arms Control Treaties

	Name of Treaty / Convention	Year	Type of WMD
1.	Geneva Protocol of 1925	1925	Chemical and Biological
2.	Partial Test Ban Treaty	1963	Nuclear
3.	Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)	1968	Nuclear
4.	Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I and II)	1969	Nuclear
5.	Outer Space Treaty	1967	Nuclear
6.	Threshold Test Ban Treaty	1974	Nuclear
7.	Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaty	1976	Nuclear
8.	Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention	1972	Biological
9.	Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW)	1980	Landmines, Lasers, etc.
10.	Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF)	1987	Nuclear
11.	Stategic Arms Reduction Treaty I and II (START I and II)	1991	Nuclear
12.	Chemical Weapons Convention	1993	Chemical
13.	Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)	1996	Nuclear
14.	Treaty on Strategic Offensive Reductions (SORT)	2002	Nuclear

Sources:

“Chemical Weapons and the Chemical Weapons Convention.” DFAIT . 12 Dec. 2002. 7 Mar. 2006. <http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/‌arms/‌chem_bio3-en.asp>.
Dudley, William. Examining Issues Through Political Cartoons: Weapons of Mass Destruction. Farmington Hills: Gale, 2005. p11.
“Geneva Protocol.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 6 Mar. 2006. <http://en.wikipedia.org/‌wiki/‌Geneva_Protocol>.
Gold, Susan. Arms Control. New York: Twenty-First Century Books, 1997.
Moore, Robert. Coalition for Peace Action. Personal Interview. 11 Apr. 2006. To view our notes of the interview, click here.
“Nuclear Test Ban.” Issues and Controversies on File. 12 Sept 2005.
“Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.” DTRAlink. 6 Mar. 2006 <http://www.dtra.mil/‌press_resources/‌fact_sheets/‌display.cfm?fs=start>.
“Treaty on the Non-proliferations of Nuclear Weapons.” UNDDA. UN Department for Disarmament Affairs. 5 Mar. 2006. <http://www.un.org/‌Depts/‌dda/‌WMD/‌treaty/>.
Vogele, William B. "Arms control." World Book Online Reference Center. 2006. 6 Mar 2006. <http://www.worldbookonline.com/wb/Article?id=ar030960>.

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