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* differing national perspectives on peace keeping, peace enforcement and the grey zone in between;
* training of peace keepers in disarmament operations;
* coercive disarmament versus consensual disarmament;
* mandate specificity of peace-keeping/peace enforcing missions;
* disarmament, peace keeping and information collection.
United Nations Report on Economic Conversion
The United Nations has long promoted the conversion of economies from military to civilian production. This contributes to a culture of peace by providing an alternative to the profits of arms manufacture and trade which have helped sustain the culture of war. The following account is based on a report to the Economic and Social Council of the UN by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Although there had been considerable progress in the scientific and technical aspects of economic conversion in earlier years, because of the Cold War, conversion did not become politically feasible until the late 1980s. Since then a number of United Nations forums and conferences have addressed the subject and some conversion activities have been undertaken by Member States.
The Russian Centre of Aerospace Complex Conversion promotes economic conversion of the Russian aerospace industry. The Centre, created in 1993 as an outgrowth of a conference organized by the United Nations and the Government of the Russian Federation, works with Russian and foreign aerospace corporations and agencies and financial and scientific institutions as well as UN agencies. One example of aerospace conversion is the joint venture of a Russian
space technology company, 'Sojuz' and a German company to produce diamonds from the explosives in shells and ammunition. In general, according to the Russian experience, enterprises oriented to production in medium-level military technology have found it easier to find new civilian markets.
China, according to recent information cited by the UNCTAD report, has converted a large part of its arms industries to the production of civilian goods.
The tasks of sustainable development and environmental conservation can be assisted in particular by military technology which has been converted for civilian use. Two examples cited by the UNCTAD report are the use of missile technologies in the Russian Federation to fight industrial fires and to reverse the desertification of the Aral Sea by spraying a special liquid which binds the soil and sand and allows plants to start growing there again.
Environmental applications are especially appropriate for the highly sophisticated information technology developed by modern military establishments such as satellites and remote sensing devices. This is doubly important because much of the most dangerous pollution in the world today comes as a result of military activities. An example cited in the UN report is the tracking of whales through the oceans by means of a US system developed originally to monitor and survey Soviet submarines at sea.
The UN report warns that economic conversion often has large short-term costs; therefore, planning must be done on a long-term basis in order to see its overall benefits and opportunities.
Although economic conversion needs to be practised by individual countries, there is a need for international coordination and co-operation as well. In particular, the sharing of experiences and technology is needed, especially from the industrial to the developing countries. One initiative for this is the Internet computer network for conversion for sustainable development developed by the Institute for Environmental Protection of the University of Dortmund, Germany, in co operation with the United Nations.
The highly sophisticated information technology of the modern military such as satellites and remote sensing devices can be converted to serve sustainable development and environmental conservation.
Economic conversion often has large short-term costs; therefore, planning must be done on a long-term basis in order to see its overall benefits and opportunities.