This book examines potential technologies for replacing antipersonnel landmines by 2006, the U.S. target date for signing an international treaty banning these weapons. Alternative Technologies to Replace Antipersonnel Landmines emphasizes the role that technology can play to allow certain weapons to be used more selectively, reducing the danger to uninvolved civilians while improving the effectiveness of the U.S. military. Landmines are an important weapon in the U.S. military's arsenal but the persistent variety can cause unintended casualties, to both civilians and friendly forces. New technologies could replace some, but not all, of the U.S. military's antipersonnel landmines by 2006. In the period following 2006, emerging technologies might eliminate the landmine totally, while retaining the necessary functionalities that today's mines provide to the military.
Banning Landmines: Disarmament, Citizen Diplomacy, and Human Security looks at accomplishments and setbacks in the crucial first decade of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. The first half of the book considers the implementation of the prohibitions and humanitarian assistance provisions of the treaty, as well as efforts to promote universal acceptance of the treaty among governments and non-state armed groups. The second half of this book considers the impact of the landmine movement on other issues (such as cluster munitions and disability rights), as well as the extent to which it has contributed to the field of human security. Edited by Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams and two other long-time leaders of the mine ban movement, Stephen Goose and Mary Wareham, Banning Landmines features contributions by grassroots activists, diplomatic negotiators, mine survivors, arms experts, and human rights defenders. This diverse group of writers at the forefront of the landmine ban movement is well placed to provide insights into this remarkable process, its precedents, and implications for other work and issues.
"While public interest in landmines is recent, their use and that of their non-explosive predecessors has a history which spans 2,500 years. Mike Croll explains the development, employment and reactions to these weapons from the concealed spikes of antiquity to the electronically-fused systems of today." "The History of Landmines takes the reader from ancient Rome to the colonial wars and from the American Civil War to the Gulf War explaining why increasing numbers of these devices have been used and how they have become more sophisticated. The genesis of the present humanitarian crisis is fully described along with the problems of clearing landmines today."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
The International Committee of the Red Cross has played a key role in the effort to ban anti-personnel landmines and in offering aid to victims of war and internal armed violence. This book provides an overview of the work of the ICRC in this area from 1955 through 1999, and gives additional commentary on general issues of the methods and means of warfare. It contains International Committee of the Red Cross position papers, working papers, and speeches made by its representatives to the international meetings convened to address the mines issue, including the 1995–96 Review Conference of the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons and the diplomatic meeting which adopted the Ottawa treaty banning anti-personnel mines. These documents provide critical insights into the development of international humanitarian law on this issue, and will form a basis for discussions on landmines and other conventional weapons.
To Walk Without Fear is a comprehensive and authoritative account of the global movement to ban landmines. It brings together leading academics, senior policy makers, and prominent leaders of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to examine and draw lessons from the "Ottawa Process" thatculminated in December 1997 when over 120 states signed a convention to ban the use, sale, and production of landmines.An essay by Nobel laureate Jody Williams and Steve Goose, of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), describes how a global coalition of NGOs led the world toward a ban on landmines, while a chapter by the Canadian diplomats who orchestrated the "Ottawa Process" takes the reader behindthe scenes into the diplomatic arm-wrestling that resulted in Canada's leadership role. International specialists offer assessments of the military utility of mines (retired General Robert Gard), their humanitarian consequences (Alex Vines), the role of the Red Cross (Stuart Maslen), landminevictims (Jerry White and Ken Rutherford), national ban campaigns (including Valerie Warmington and Mary Warham), the problems of mine clearance (Don Hubert), and interpretations of the legal text of the treaty (Thomas Hajnoczi and Deborah Chatsis). Academic specialists analyze the policy process andnegotiations, explore the political economy of mines, identify the implications of the treaty for the development of international humanitarian norms, democratization, and civil society, and Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs (Lloyd Axworthy) draws lessons from the Ottawa Process for other policyissues. The book resulted from an unusual collaboration between universities, governments, and nongovernmental organizations which developed in tandem with the negotiation process itself. Chapters were developed through a series of policy workshops, a seminar series, intensive focus-group discussions withgovernment officials and NGO members, and a "lessons learned" exercise that brought together over 200 NGO and government participants immediately after the signing of the convention. As a result, the book provides a rich source of new information and analyses. It will be both timely and ofenduring value to policy makers interested in drawing lessons from the Ottawa Process, to non-governmental organizations interested in replicating its results in other areas, to academic specialists and students interested in foreign policy and international affairs, and to the general publicseeking an accessible and readable account of one of the most significant global movements in recent years.
"America's Buried History traces the development of landmines from their first use before the Civil War, to the early use of naval mines, through the establishment of the Confederacy's Army Torpedo Bureau, the world's first institution devoted to developing, producing, and fielding mines in warfare."--Provided by publisher,
"Efforts to create or maintain rules to contain the risks stemming from an unrestrained multilateral arms race are at the core of a world order based on consensual norms rather than on a pure balance of power. Whereas security cooperation is conventionally considered to be motivated primarily by interest- and security-based factors, studies have shown that all actors use moral arguments and are deeply embedded in the normative patterns surrounding their realm of action. Norm Dynamics in Multilateral ArmsControl, based on research conducted by a large PRIF team led by Harald M
At the rate that government and nongovernmental organizations are clearing existing landmines, it will take 450-500 years to rid the world of them. Concerned about the slow pace of demining, the Office of Science and Technology asked RAND to assess potential innovative technologies being explored and to project what funding would be required to foster the development of the more promising ones. The authors of this report suggest that the federal government undertake a research and development effort to develop a multisensor mine detection system over the next five to eight years.
