Arms Control

Term that typically refers to nuclear disarmament but also may be used to describe a broad array of concepts, proposals, and policies meant to decrease the incidence of violent conflict. Arms control may also refer to small arms, in which case the term “gun control” is used. Aside from the issue of scale, the basic difference between the regulation of guns and the regulation of nuclear weaponry is that the former is usually negotiated in terms of citizens' rights to possess such weapons within a given society, and the latter is typically determined internationally.

Early Arms Control

Attempts at arms control extend back to the Middle Ages, when the church attempted to ban the use of crossbows in warfare among Christians. The failure of this early attempt to prohibit a specific weapon that has since become militarily obsolete demonstrates the complexity of the arms control agenda.

A famous example of early arms control, which had important implications for military development and conquest, was the limitation on gun production in Japan during the 17th century. Guns were first introduced in Japan in 1543 by two Portuguese men carrying harquebuses (a type of gun) who arrived on a Chinese cargo ship. Gun technology and production expanded rapidly and, by 1600, the Japanese had surpassed the Europeans both in terms of ownership and the superiority of their weaponry. However, guns were regarded unfavorably by the Samurai, for whom the sword was vital both symbolically and as a means of subjugation. Prejudice against guns was also accentuated by the general rejection of all things foreign to Japan during the 1600s. It was not until the 19th century that the Japanese recognized the necessity of gun manufacture for sovereignty and survival.

Arms control has frequently been a matter of victors imposing restrictions on the defeated in the aftermath of a conflict. The Romans sought to disarm the Carthaginians in the aftermath of the Punic Wars. Napoleon also sought to impose arms limitations on Austria and Prussia following his victories in the 19th century.

The Modern Era

The buildup of arms and maintenance of standing armies are among the frequently cited causes of World War I, an outcome confirming the belief preceding it—that major wars are inevitable amid the unlimited stockpiling of munitions. Thus, the concept of disarmament became enshrined as one of President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points during the peace talks at Versailles. The resurgence of German militarism under the Nazis during the period between the wars, however, demonstrates the problematic nature of arms control as part of the conditions of peace.

The use of poison gas by both sides during World War I led to the 1925 Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare. The Geneva Protocol referred to the use of chemical and biological weapons, but it said nothing about their stockpiling or production. However, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and their Destruction, issued in 1972, was more comprehensive. The Biological Weapons Convention was the first multilateral disarmament treaty to ban an entire category of weapons. This was followed in the 1990s by the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and their Destruction. The United States rejected the Biological Weapons Convention in 2001 and continues to maintain a stockpile of chemical weapons.

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