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.
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.
Against all odds, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines helped to enact a global treaty banning antipersonnel mines in 1997. For that achievement it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In this volume, Leon Sigal shows how a handful of NGOs with almost no mass base got more than 100 countries to outlaw a weapon that their armies had long used. It is a story of intrigue and misperception, of clashing norms and interests, of contentious bureaucratic and domestic politics. It is also a story of effective leadership, of sustained commitment to a cause, of alliances between campaigners and government officials, of a US senator who championed the ban, and of the skilful use of the news media. Despite this monumental effort, the campaign failed to get the United States to sign the treaty. Drawing on extensive internal documents and interviews with US officials and ban campaigners, Sigal tells the story of the in-fighting inside the Clinton administration, in the Pentagon, and within the ban campaign itself that led to this major setback for an otherwise unprecedented, successful global effort. Negotiating Minefields will be of interest to students and scholars of military and strategic studies and politics and international relations.
"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
An impressive array of activists, scholars, government officials, journalists, and landmine victims themselves are gathered here to tell the dramatic and inspiring story of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). Organized in the early 1990s, the ICBL is a network of more than one thousand nongovernmental organizations worldwide, working for a global ban on landmines. It was an important force behind the treaty to ban antipersonnel landmines that was signed in Ottawa in 1997, and which led to its being awarded the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, along with its coordinator.
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.
Years after peace treaties have been signed and military conflict is nominally over, anti-personnel mines continue to claim innocent lives. This text offers data showing that landmines victimize civilians in direct contravention of the Geneva convention and examines the impact landmines have on people, on their communities and on their outlook and view of life. The report, commissioned by the VVAF, examines the consequences of landmine use on post-conflict reconstruction and development, on refugee movement and resettlement and on the environment. It also investigates mine clearance and mine awareness and medical, rehabilitative and psychological costs. Using original research, the report uses case studies from countries including Angola, Mozambique, Cambodia and the former Yugoslavia. Scholarly and accurate analysis combines with people's own words and real personal stories to present a detailed evaluation of the effect of this most potent of weapons. This work is published by the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation and distributed in the UK and Ireland by Oxfam.
"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,
