Disarming the World | americanethos

DISARMING THE WORLD

A VIDEO SERIES

Background

Landmines, firearms, and nuclear weapons have caused countless injuries and deaths to

soldiers and civilians alike. The global community has come together through the efforts of

NGOs and the United Nations to limit the proliferation of these weapons through treaties and

conventions. However, they still run into problems at the implementation phase as states will,

for a variety of reasons, neglect or decline to ratify the treaties.

The major efforts to eliminate landmines are the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use,

Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, also

known as the Ottawa Convention or the Mine Ban Treaty, and the Convention on Prohibitions

or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be

Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects. Both of these conventions lack universal

ratification, including some permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

Small arms and light weapons tend to be discussed in the scope of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT)

and the United Nations Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade

in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, or PoA. The third review conference of the

Programme of Action takes place in June 2018 and will examine the progress of the Programme

and areas where the international community needs to strengthen or improve their efforts. As

with other conventions, the ATT and the PoA are not universally accepted and the process of

ratification is ongoing.

Nuclear weapons need little introduction, though the new Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty, the

Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, has an increasing significance in today’s

international climate. No nuclear armed nation is currently party to the new treaty, though 53

signed the Treaty just this September.

This video series will present case studies about these weapons from the research of professors

from Colgate University’s Peace and Conflict Studies (PCON) Program, followed by information

on the efforts to ban the weapons from people directly involved in the campaigns to ban them.

Biographies

Dr. Mundy is an Associate Professor in Colgate’s PCON Program. His research interests are

primarily critical security studies, political economy, and Northern Africa. He has conducted

years of field work in North Africa, including in Libya during the Arab Spring, Algeria, Morocco

and Western Sahara. He teaches a range of Peace and Conflict Studies classes, from

Introduction to PCON to the Honors Seminar. He has written extensively on the condition of the

Sahrawi people and the conflict with Morocco in Western Sahara and has taught at Colgate

since 2011.

Dr. Harpp is a Professor of Geology and Peace and Conflict Studies at Colgate University. Among

her research interests are several forms of geochemistry and she teaches both The Advent of

the Nuclear Bomb and Weapons and War in the Peace and Conflict Studies Program. In 2012,

the Princeton Review named Dr. Harpp as one of the Best 300 Professors in the nation. She

began working at Colgate University in 1999.

Teo Ballve

Dr. Ballve teaches for the Peace and Conflict Studies Program and the Department of

Geography. His cross-listed courses include Criminal Underworld: Drugs, Guns, and Bodies and

Environmental Security, though he teaches a variety of other courses including War in Lived

Experience. His current research looks at how the environment can be a weapon or a tool of

peace and how violent criminal enterprises shape state-building in Latin America. His work

largely focuses on political ecology and political economy in Latin America. He began work at

Colgate University in 2015.

Baffour Amoa is the President of the International Advisory Council for the International Action Network on Small Arms. He has also been the president of the West Africa Action Network on Small Arms and the Africa Forum on Small Arms. The International Advisory Council guides operational plans for IANSA through resolving differences between members with debate.

Rose Welsch has worked as the United Nations Liaison for the International Action Network on Small Arms since January 2016. She recently spoke at the United Nations General Assembly First Committee on civil society concerns about the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms in preparation for the upcoming Review Conference. Before working with IANSA, Welsch worked as an international coordinator for Peace Boat.

Yeshua Moser has worked on many aspects of weapons disarmament including landmines, small arms, and nuclear weapons. He currently works with Mine Action Canada and Nonviolence International but also co-founded the International Action Network on Small Arms and has been with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines since its founding. Among his many positions, he also serves as a board member for the International Peace Bureau and is associated with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Three of the organizations Moser is associated with, Nonviolence International, the IPB, and Mine Action Canada, are also members of the coalition that make up the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots.