ABSTRACT
Figure 24.1 The Russell-Einstein Manifesto (1955) and the Pugwash Movement (1957) 375 Figure 24.2 The IAEA inspection regime in the twentieth century 378 Figure 24.3 Arms control treaties and conventions 1959-85 382
The definition of aggression
Debates on the definition of aggression and of disarmament were, from a time point of view, a significant element of UN processes. It took almost a quarter of a century to decide on the definition of aggression. Aggression had already been a discussion item during the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928 (see §16.2) and it returned within the context of the Nuremburg Tribunal, when the question was considered of whether planning an aggressive war was a crime against peace (see §21.1). In 1950 the Soviet Union proposed that the UN should formulate a definition of aggression, a proposal that was sent to the International Law Commission for further study. In 1952 the General Assembly set up a special committee on the subject, which was remodelled a number of times. This committee submitted a draft definition in 1973, adopted by the UN in 1974, but it only referred to armed aggression by states, or groups of states, against each other and disregarded other forms of aggression. Despite these limitations, attempts such as this fulfilled ‘the general desire of the international community to avoid war’ (Gorman 2001, 119). Compared with the debate on aggression, the way the issue of nuclear weapons control was dealt with seems fairly straightforward. The discussions started in 1946 and resulted in a treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons in 1968. Although the
term disarmament (the partial or total abolition of weapons, without them being replaced by new ones) is often used in this context, what is really meant is generally arms control: the containment of the arms process with a view to reducing the risk of war (and to managing the costs involved).
