About

DisarmingConflict is an occasional column by Ernie Regehr.

DisarmingConflict explores the initiatives, policies, and international rules that are designed to fulfill the United Nations’ Charter pledge to control and reduce arsenals and to minimize and resolve armed conflict. Article 26 mandates the Security Council to establish “a system for the regulation of armaments” as part of a larger effort to “promote the establishment and maintenance of international peace and security with the least diversion for armaments of the world’s human and economic resources.”

The progress thus far in implementing Article 26 is modest.

almost 80 million men and women are currently under arms (2008 figures for regular armed forces, reserves, and para-military); hundreds of thousands, if not millions, more are linked to non-state armed groups;
the world annually spends over US$1.5 trillion dollars on armaments and armed forces (2008 figure);
the nuclear weapons that remain deployed and on high alert are still capable of obliterating the world many times over, and
almost 30 wars are currently being fought, and to prosecute them governments collectively divert vast sums of scarce resources away from development, without delivering on the security promised.

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But, as noted when DisarmingConflict was launched in 2006, that is not the whole story. The good news is that an international phalanx of politicians, diplomats, researchers, and advocates is focused on pursuing the kind of peace and security governance that the Charter envisions. The postings in this space have and will therefore continue to focus on initiatives, policies, regulations, and security cooperation measures that are designed to regulate and reduce arsenals, to reduce the incidence and impact of armed conflict, and to encourage states to devote a greater share of their resources to building conditions for sustainable peace.

The familiar push to continue to militarize the pursuit of security occupies the daily headlines, but it is the effort to ameliorate the insecurities that face most people on a daily basis that has the truly disarming effect on conflict. Attention to unmet basic needs, political exclusion, denied rights, social and political disintegration, and the criminal and political violence that invariably accompany these conditions of insecurity is at the core of preventing and terminating armed conflicts. Security policy worthy of the name must therefore include the pursuit of economic justice and poverty eradication, human rights and political inclusion, the peaceful settlement of disputes, and control over the instruments of violence – i.e. disarmament.

About Ernie Regehr

Ernie Regehr, O.C. is Senior Fellow in Defence Policy and Arctic Security at The Simons Foundation of Vancouver (www.thesimonsfoundation.ca), and Research Fellow at the Centre for Peace Advancement, Conrad Grebel University College, the University of Waterloo. He is co-founder of Project Ploughshares, the Ecumenical Peace Centre of the Canadian Council of Churches and one of Canada’s premier peace and security centres (http://www.ploughshares.ca/). His publications on peace and security issues include books, monographs, journal articles, policy papers, parliamentary briefs, and op-eds (see separate list of selected publications). His most recent book is Disarming Conflict: Why peace cannot be won on the battlefield (Between the Lines, Toronto, and Zed Books, London, 2015). He is an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Ernie has served as an NGO representative and expert advisor on numerous Government of Canada delegations to multilateral disarmament forums, including Review Conferences of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and UN Conferences on Small Arms. In 1990-1991 he was Canada’s representative on the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts on Arms Transfer Transparency that led to the creation in 1992 of the UN Conventional Arms Register, and in 2001 was an adviser to the Government of Kenya in the development of a regional arms control agreement on small arms known as the Nairobi Declaration. He has traveled frequently to conflict zones, especially in East Africa, contributed to Track II diplomacy efforts related to the conflict in southern Sudan, and has served on the Board of the Africa Peace Forum of Nairobi, Kenya. He is a former Commissioner of the World Council of Churches Commission on International Affairs, where he was active in developing the WCC’s position on R2P as adopted at the 2006 World Assembly.

DEGREES/AWARDS

1968: BA (English), University of Waterloo

1990: LL.D. (HC), Wilfrid Laurier University

1993: Canada 125 Medal

1999: Peace Plaque, Canadian Peace Research and Education Foundation

2003: Officer of the Order of Canada

2006: World Peace Award, World Federalist Movement-Canada

2006: Presbyterian Church in Canada’s 2007 E.H. Johnson Award for work in areas of peace and disarmament

2007: University of Waterloo, 50^th Anniversary Alumni Award

2008: Arthur Kroeger College Award for Ethics in Public Affairs

2011: Pearson Peace Medal, United Nations Association in Canada

2012: The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal

2013: Alumni Achievement Award, University of Waterloo

2013: The Howard Zinn Lifetime Achievement Award in Peace Studies, Peace and Justice Studies Association

SELECTED APPOINTMENTS

Adjunct Associate Professor, Peace and Conflict Studies, Conrad Grebel University College, University of Waterloo (formerly).
Fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation, 2008-2010.
Adviser, Government of Canada delegation to the 2005 Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (including Preparatory Committee meetings in 2002, 2003, 2004).
Adviser, Canada/Bangladesh planning for South Asia Conference on Small Arms, 2002.
Member, Non-Proliferation, Arms Control and Disarmament (NACD) Experts Group, 2002, established by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade to review Canadian NACD policy, 2002.
Adviser, Government of Canada delegation to G8 Officials meeting on Conflict Prevention, 2001.
Adviser, Government of Canada delegation to the UN Small Arms Conference, 2001.
Adviser, Government of Kenya re Nairobi Declaration on small arms, 2001.
Head of Delegation, World Council of Churches, at the United Nations Conference on Small Arms and Light Weapons, New York, July 2001.
Adviser, Government of Canada delegation to NPT Review Conference, 2000.
Member of the Government of Canada investigative mission (“Harker mission”) on the impact of oil on the conflict in Sudan, 1999.
Member, World Council of Churches delegation to Cyprus to assess developments in the peace process and potential for new ecumenical initiatives, October 1999.
Member of the Advisory Board to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, 1997-2000.
Canada’s representative on the 18-member United Nations Group of Governmental Experts on Arms Transfer Transparency, which undertook a two-year study of the feasibility of a UN Conventional Arms Register, 1990-91.

SELECTED MEMBERSHIPS

Board of Directors, Centre for Security Governance, Waterloo, Ontario.
Steering Committee, Canadians for a Nuclear Weapons Convention.
Board of Directors, Reception House Waterloo Region.
Board of Directors, Africa Peace Forum, Nairobi, Kenya (formerly).
Vice-Chair, the Canadian Pugwash Group (formerly).
Member, Steering Committee, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Consultative Group on Nuclear Policy, (formerly).
Member, Advisory Committee, the Canadian Peacebuilding Coordinating Committee, (formerly).
Board of Directors, Canadian Council for International Cooperation, (formerly).
Board of Directors, The Institute for Christian Ethics, Waterloo Lutheran Seminary (formerly).
Board of Directors, The Defence Research and Education Centre Limited (Veterans Against Nuclear Arms) (formerly).
Commissioner, World Council of Churches Commission on International Affairs, (formerly).
International Affairs Committee of the Canadian Council of Churches (formerly).
International Peace Committee, Mennonite Central Committee (formerly).
The Steering Committee of the former Ambassador for Disarmament Consultative Group on Arms Control and Disarmament (formerly).
Vice-Chair, Board of Directors, Mennonite Savings and Credit Union, (formerly).