Challenge Militarism

Since the United Nations (UN) was founded almost 70 years ago, international arms control and disarmament agreements have been developed and advocated by states, individuals and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Article 26 of the UN Charter clearly states that it is the Security Council's task to advocate for disarmament and international arms control, yet military expenditures continues to increase every year. Statistics from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) show that total global military expenditure in 2008 amounted to 1464 billion USD, approximately 2.4 % of the world's total GDP.

Whilst military capacity is exposed every day to be a terminally ineffective method of assuring security given the nature of modern threats, militaries the world over consume ever-increasing amounts of the world's human and economic resources. Despite this realization, we keep spending more money on more weapons - and by doing so invest in brutal and destructive conflicts. This publication will provide an insight to the misguided nature of prevailing priorities with regard to security demonstrating their real costs and consequences.