Conflicts and peace, arms trade and arms control agreements
The graph compares periods of peace, the number of conflicts and ratified arms control agreements as well as the volumes of arms traded by the five countries that are permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany. This is presented in the form of a “bar chart”, allowing us to make a visual comparison of the individual criteria and thus draw conclusion about the various security policies pursued by these countries.
Facts
The years in which a country was not part of a conflict are counted as 'years at peace' (after World War II or state formation) The Federal Republic of Germany has, since its formation, 51 years of peace (out of 66 years of existence) While China totals 41 years at peace, it is followed by the United States with 31, Russia and France both with 26 and Great Britain with only nine years at peace.
The number of participations in conflict is taken from the UCDP/PRIO Armed Conflict data set whereby only wars and conflicts were taken into account in which at least one state was involved and in which the number of casualties resulting from armed fighting was higher than 25. Between 1946 and 2013, France was involved in 27 conflicts, closely followed by Great Britain with 25 and Russia with 22. In the same period of time, the United States was involved in 19 conflicts, China in 11 and Germany in only four. The number of armed conflicts since the end of World War II has risen drastically around the world (1949 - 17 conflicts, 2013 - 33 conflicts).
Arms control agreements can build trust through reciprocal checks and consequently help to defuse crises and conflicts. In addition to the well-known agreements on nuclear, biological, chemical and conventional weapons or warfare agents, the graph also shows the Geneva Convention, the Convention on Cluster Munitions, the Mine Ban Treaty and the still young Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). While Germany, France and Great Britain have ratified all of the nine listed agreements, the United States, Russia and China have each only ratified six.
The arms trade worldwide with an estimated annual volume of between 40 and 50 billion US dollars has grown markedly in recent years. In the period 1950 to 2014, the United States exported weapons with a total value of US $633.5 billion followed by Russia with arms exports totalling US $569.4 billion. Over the same period, France, Great Britain, China and Germany, taken together, exported weapons worth roughly US $382 billion.
Asian countries have become leading importers of weapons worldwide. As for individual countries, India and Saudi-Arabia are the top two importers. Of the six countries taken for our comparison, China imported arms worth US $74 billion over the period 1950 to 2013, way ahead of Germany (US $57 bn), the United States (US $44 bn), Great Britain (US $32 bn), Russia (US $30 bn) and France (US $18 bn).
Terms, notes on methodology or reading aids
The absolute values of the five criteria are turned into relative values for the graph by being set on a scale of 0 to 100, with the highest value for each criterion set at 100% (e.g. nine ratified arms control agreements = 100%). While we can regard a high value for “years in peace” or the number of ratified arms control agreements as positive, the higher values (presented as reaching further from the centre of the web) tend to be negative in the case of the other criteria.
The arms trade (legal and illegal) describes the buying and selling of weapons between different players, e.g. governments, companies or private individuals. Weapons are generally imported because a country lacks arms manufacturing capacity or has a current shortage of modern weapons. The most important exporters are rich countries with a high technical standard. As poor countries trade natural resources for weapons, the exploitation of a resource and the weapons procured with this can exacerbate a conflict situation in that country. This is why sanctions are imposed on some countries and the trade in certain goods is forbidden. Arms control agreements: The term arms control agreement refers to bilateral or multilateral agreements that, on the one hand, seek to reduce existing weapons or troops and, on the other, build mutual trust by arranging reciprocal monitoring and inspection and thus helping to defuse conflicts.
Data sources:
Cluster Munition Coalition The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) is an international civil society movement that campaigns against the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions. The Coalition, active in more than 90 countries around the world, works to change the policy and legislation of governments and organizations and raise public awareness of the inhumane use of cluster munitions.
Cluster Munition Coalition - Treaty Status
International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) The International Campaign to Ban Landmines is a global network that works in more than 90 countries to create a world that is free of anti-personnel landmines. In 1997, the campaign was awarded the Peace Nobel Prize for the enforcement of the Mine Ban Treaty.
International Campaign to Ban Landmines - Treaty Status
CTBTO (Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization) Founded in 1997 and located in Vienna, the CTBTO has set itself the task to make first development and the further development of nuclear weapons more difficult. A global net of sensors serves as surveillance mechanism; furthermore it intends to carry out on-site inspections after the Treaty has actually come into force.
CTBTO: Status of Signature und Ratification
The International Committee of the Red Cross - ICRC is part of the international Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The core tasks of the ICRC are to monitor compliance with the Geneva Conventions, organize nursing and care of the wounded, supervise the treatment of prisoners of war, help to bring together families separated by armed conflict, protect the civilian population from violence, and mediate between parties to a conflict. The Committee also coordinates and manages international aid missions.
UCDP (Uppsala Conflict Data Program) and PRIO (Peace Research Institute Oslo) UCDP and PRIO publish the Armed Conflict Dataset and the Battle-Related Deaths Dataset on an annual basis. These were combined to localize wars and conflicts. The definition of war the dataset is based on only considers wars or conflicts with the participation of at least one state and in which more than 25 persons have died as a result of armed fighting Wars were grouped according to extra-state / extra systemic violent conflicts (state against a non-state actor outside of existing borders), interstate wars (between two states), intra-state (state against a non-state actor within existing borders) and internationalized intra-state conflicts (state with the help of other states against a non-state actor within existing borders).
UCDP (Uppsala Conflict Data Program) Armed Conflict Dataset
PRIO (Peace Research Institute Oslo) Armed Conflict Dataset
UNODA (United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs) The United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs was founded in 1998 with the intention of nuclear disarmament and the limitation of the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Furthermore, the intention was to limit general weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical and biological weapons and to reduce the use of conventional weapons, particularly landmines and small arms and light weapons It also supports the disarmament and reintegration of ex-combatants into civilian life. By means of more dialogue, higher transparency and confidence-building measures, one hopes to achieve these goals.
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
UNOG (United Nations Office at Geneva) Based in Geneva, UNOG is the second-largest of the United Nation’s four centres. It is home to the UN Human Rights Council, the UN High Commissioners and the UN Treaty Bodies. In the latter role, the UNOG publishes information on the various agreements, including a table specifying which countries have ratified which protocols of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, along with updates on the CCW process.
UNOG – Member states of the Un Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons
SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) In its Yearbook, SIPRI publishes current global military expenditures on an annual basis The data from the Yearbook 2014 are calculated with the base year 2013 and shown in US dollars. SIPRI's data are a combination of primary sources, such as data from national governments or the United Nations, evaluations of these sources as well as other secondary sources, such as newspapers and journals In doing so, SIPRI acknowledges that it is unable to paint the full picture as national military expenditures can also be listed in extra budgets and are difficult to record
For a detailed overview of data and data sources, refer to the moduleconventional weaponsandarms control.
