New York, NY – -(AmmoLand.com)- One could see that the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which entered into force on December 24, 2014, was collapsing even before the proponents could show evidence that it had any effect on global peace.
Even the proponents could see that the treaty was failing. The arms control procedures of the legally binding ATT were ineffective, and peace is not breaking out.
In 2019, Allison Pytlak, commenting for Reaching Critical Will, a non-government organization (a.k.a. NGO) committed to disarmament as the path to peace, was frustrated by the “flagrant displays of non-compliance that were eroding the Treaty’s impact and external credibility.” And recently Pytlak noted, “The world is awash in weapons.” She’s correct.
But This Year, With The Invasion Of Ukraine By Russia, It Has Become Very Obvious That The Arms Trade Treaty Was In Fact Dead, Never To Rise Again.
This year, the entire globe watched Putin lay waste to a country that in 1994 signed a non-aggression disarmament pact with Russia, the US, and the UK, named the Budapest Memorandum. Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange for the promise that Russia would “respect the independence and sovereignty, and the existing borders of Ukraine.”
So Much For Promises.
- Why would any country comply with the requirements of the ATT to blab about their weaknesses and strengths, and then permit ATT appointees to determine their arms purchases and sales?
- Why would any country voluntarily weaken itself based on the promises of ATT proponents that such behavior would lead quickly to peace?
There is no evidence that anything in or about the ATT leads to peace. The Institute for Economics and Peace, in its Global Peace Index for 2021 admitted, “In the past fifteen years peacefulness has fallen.” One would expect some small improvement for peace in the years since the ATT, but none can be found.
This August, the Eighth Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty will take place in Geneva. You can sign up here to receive daily updates during the conference. Normally, the diplomats show pleasant smiles that really mean ‘what a great idea, but first, let’s talk some more.’ This year those smiles will really mean, ‘NO, NEVER.’
Participating countries understand that the ATT commitment to weapons control is just a euphemism for global disarmament. Disarmament, the U.N. claims, is the path to peace. In their own words, the First Committee of the U.N. General Assembly, “deals with disarmament…and measures aimed at strengthening stability through lower levels of armaments.”
The U.N. has a fantasy about the blessings of disarmament. Antonio Guterres, U.N. Secretary-General, made this very clear in 2018. His document, Securing Our Common Future: An Agenda for Disarmament, explains, “The purpose was nothing less than the elimination of war.”
Here’s the problem. Even if a disarmed world might be a peaceful world, that only holds if all nations disarm at the same time. And that is highly impossible. Those who disarm first would be at risk until total disarmament ensued. Like Ukraine.
However, at this next ATT meeting, no one proponent will/can admit failure. What will they do next? At this time, no one knows, but one thing is for sure – The Arms Control Crowd Have Literally Gone Crazy With Failure, After Failure, After Failure.
The problem, they claim, is the patriarchy, and the fact that males control most of the global arms. Ray Acheson, of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) talked about “the patriarchy” at a presentation at the U.N. on June 6, 2018, which was then published by the U.N. Office for Disarmament Affairs.
“Militarised masculinity is the main impediment to disarmament, peace, and gender equality,” Acheson said, and then concluded, “dismantling the patriarchy…starts with taking on these norms, deconstructing them, and building something better for all of us.”
The ATT proponents have enlarged their fantasies to include male gender bias. Instead of controlling weapons first, they now believe that they must convince global males to give up their masculinity, because then, and only then, will the male-dominated world leaders give up their weapons. And they actually need to enlarge this fantasy, just a little more, as they must time this massive de-manning to occur simultaneously, worldwide.
The arms control people know that their new message will not be easily accepted. The proponents already see Americans fighting back against the blurring of the sexes. Can you imagine Putin, Xi, or any Muslim nation giving up their masculinity? So they will have to change this narrative to make it more palatable.
We predict that treaty proponents will create intense pressure to include more women in arms control decisions, and place more emphasis on adding gender-based violence language into the ATT and other global arms control schemes.
Renata Hessmann Dalaqua, who heads the Gender and Disarmament Programme at UNIDIR, the U.N. Institute For Disarmament Research, explained recently that women are not equally represented at disarmament fora, and that women’s participation “drops for every upward step on the status ladder.”
Earlier this year, Michelle Bachelet, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights called for, “increased consideration and representation of women in security sector reform and in arms control and disarmament processes.”
It truly appears that the U.N. disarmament theories do not work well for humankind, and perhaps our species is not quite ready for peace through disarmament. Perhaps George Washington and our Founders do show a better path, a path of balance of power leading to the mutual respect that works for nations and individuals.
In his fifth annual message to Congress, George Washington advised:
“If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war.”
Washington’s advice might be the quickest path to peace in this century.
About The Authors
Alan J Chwick has been involved with firearms much of his life and is the Retired Managing Coach of the Freeport NY Junior Marksmanship Club. He has escaped New York State to South Carolina and is an SC FFL (Everything22andMore.com). AJChwick@iNCNF.org | TWITTER: @iNCNF
Joanne D Eisen, DDS (Ret.) practiced dentistry on Long Island, NY. She has collaborated and written on firearm politics for the past 40+ years. She, too, escaped New York State, but to Virginia. JoanneDEisen@cs.com