Disarming security : Project Ploughshares, the just war, and the new world order
Date
2017
Authors
Esau, Paul
University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science
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Publisher
Lethbridge, Alta : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of History
Abstract
This thesis argues that the advocacy practiced by Canadian disarmament NGO Project Ploughshares regarding military policy and the arms trade in the 1990s was an attempt to shift Canadian priorities from national security to common security / human security, and that shift required a drastic change in Canadian military production and export policy. It explains how arms control as a historical concept derives from the just war tradition, and how Ploughshares used that same just war tradition to argue that the contemporary arms trade is inherently unethical, violating both modern understandings of rights and security. It explains how Canadian policy regarding arms production and export is directly tied into Canadian military policy and industrial policy, and is the result of a long history of decisions attempting to open the massive American market to Canada’s defence industrial base. Finally, it explains how Ploughshares has advocated for policies of transparency and regulation as the most effective means of constraining the global proliferation of arms, and pursued these specific policy initiatives in both the national and international forum.
Description
Keywords
arms control , Canadian foreign policy , Canadian military policy , common security , human security , Project Ploughshares