Unilateral disarmament

Unilateral disarmament is a policy option, to renounce weapons without seeking equivalent concessions from one's actual or potential rivals. The term has been most commonly used in the twentieth century in the context of unilateral nuclear disarmament, a recurrent objective of peace movements in countries such as the United Kingdom.

Nations do not often choose to dismantle their entire military capability. Unilateral disarmament is usually sought in one technical competency, such as weapons of mass destruction. Non-violent political movements from that of Mahatma Gandhi[1] to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament have recommended unilateral disarmament as a step toward world peace.

Unilateral nuclear disarmament could happen were a series of cascading failures to occur. For example loss of expertise, inability to finance, recapitalize and maintain the existing nuclear capability. Procrastination and neglect of existing nuclear weapon platforms and infrastructure to such an extent that a nation is unable to reconstitute its nuclear capability, and thus deterrence, in time before portions of the system(s) begin to break down.[2]

## Contents

* 1 By country
* 1.1 Costa Rica
* 1.2 United States
* 1.3 South Africa
* 1.4 Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine
* 2 References
* 3 External links

## By country

### Costa Rica

The only recent candidate for having performed an act of complete disarmament is Costa Rica, which unilaterally disarmed and demilitarized itself in 1948,[3] writing its non-military status into its constitution in 1949.[4] In a public ceremony to mark the occasion, the existing Commander-in-Chief handed the keys to Army HQ to the Minister of Education, for use as a school. Since that time, Costa Rica has been briefly invaded once, by Nicaragua, but has maintained its territorial integrity.

### United States

Although former US President Richard Nixon expressly denounced unilateral disarmament in 1969,[5] Nixon's unilateral discontinuation of biological weapons development in 1972 is often characterized as a "unilateral disarmament".[6]

In 2017, George Ingram criticized the weakening of development budgets and other diplomatic efforts that can help avoid or end conflicts as a unilateral disarmament of a useful tool to advance US interests.[7]

In 2025, Joel Simon writing in the Columbia Journalism Review called the dismantling of the United States Agency for Global Media a unilateral disarmament in the global information war.[8]

### South Africa

South Africa voluntarily gave up its nuclear weapons programme after the end of apartheid.[9]

### Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine

Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine inherited nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union that were deployed in their territories. The three countries voluntarily gave up the weapons in 1996 after the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States assured these three countries that they will not threaten or use military force or economic coercion against them through the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances.[10] Russia broke the assurance by annexing Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and launching a full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

## References

1. ↑ Anil Dutta Mishra (2002). Rediscovering Gandhi. Mittal Publications. p. 72. ISBN 978-81-7099-836-5. https://books.google.com/books?id=jlEP8z_mTGcC&pg=PA72.
2. ↑ "Subcommittee on Strategic Forces Hearing: "Strategic Forces Posture Hearing"". Armed Services Republicans. 27 February 2020. https://armedservices.house.gov/hearings?ID=405B79E0-8FE5-4D5E-892E-20CEFE5AE2A4.
3. ↑ Matthew Bolton, Pace University (19 May 2015). "Event: General and complete disarmament". NPT News in Review 13 (13): 10. http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/npt/NIR2015/No13.pdf. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
4. ↑ Hayles, Tanisha Ellis (2 March 2014). "Opinion: Costa Rica — a country withoutan army and proud of it - Columns". Jamaica Observer. http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/Costa-Rica
a-country-without-an-army-and-proud-of-it_16147133.
5. ↑ "Nixon says U.S. defences to stay strong; no one-sided disarmament". The Bryan Times (Colorado Springs: United Press International): p. 1. 4 June 1969. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xoZhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=H0gDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6641,3621036.
6. ↑ Eric Croddy (27 June 2011). Chemical and Biological Warfare: A Comprehensive Survey for the Concerned Citizen. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-4613-0025-0. https://books.google.com/books?id=5HLjBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA31.
7. ↑ "Draconian cuts to diplomacy and development: Unilateral disarmament or head fake" (in en-US). https://www.brookings.edu/articles/draconian-cuts-to-diplomacy-and-development-unilateral-disarmament-or-head-fake/.
8. ↑ Simon, Joel (June 26, 2025). "A Secret Program Allowed VOA to Broadcast Television into North Korea. Now It’s Gone." (in en). https://www.cjr.org/news/trump-lake-secret-program-voice-of-america-north-korea-tv-broadcast-gone.php.
9. ↑ Purkitt, Helen E.; Burgess, Stephen F. (2005). South Africa's weapons of mass destruction. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
10. ↑ Harahan, Joseph P. (2014). "With Courage and Persistence: Eliminating and Securing Weapons of Mass Destruction with the Nunn-Luger Cooperative Threat Reduction Programs". DTRA History Series. Defense Threat Reduction Agency. pp. 101–134,186. https://www.dtra.mil/Portals/61/Documents/History/With Courage and Persistence CTR.pdf?ver=2016-05-09-102902-893.

## External links

* Institute for Disarmament Research at the United Nations

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