Term
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Definition
| the continent's leading intergovernmental organization; all of Africa's countries but Morocco are members. The successor to the Organization of the African Unity |
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Term
| Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) |
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Definition
| A treaty signed by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1972 that barred the two countries from developing and deploying a system to shoot down ballistic missals. The United States withdrew from the treaty in 2001 in order to pursue the development and deployment of a national missile defense system. |
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Term
| Anti-Personnel Mine Treaty (APM) |
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Definition
| A treaty signed in 1997 and effective in 1999 that commits its adherents not to produce, stockpile, or transfer antipersonnel land mines, to destroy any current inventory of mines, and to remove all mines they have planted. The United States is among the handful of countries that has not agreed to the treaty. |
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Term
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Definition
| a variety of approaches to the limitation of weapons. Arms control ranges from restricting the future growth in the number, types, or deployment of weapons, through the reduction of weapons; to the elimination of some types of (or even all) weapons on a global or regional basis. |
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Term
| biological weapons convention |
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Definition
| a multilateral treaty concluded in 1972. The parties to the treaty agree not to develop, produce, stockpile, or acquire biological agents or toxins of types and in quantities that have no justification for the prophylactic, protective, and other peaceful purposes and to destroy any such material that they might have. |
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Term
| chemical weapons convention |
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Definition
| a treaty that was signed and became effective in 1995 under which signatories pledge to eliminate all chemical weapons by the year 2005; to submit to rigorous inspection; to never develop, produce, stockpile, or use chemical weapons; and to never transfer chemical weapons to another country or assist another country to acquire such weapons. |
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Term
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Definition
| the original theory behind UN peace-keeping. It holds that aggression against one state is aggression against every member and should be defeated by the collective action of all. |
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Term
| Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) |
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Definition
| a treaty that bans all testing of nuclear weapons. The treaty was signed in 1996 but will not go into force until ratified by the major nuclear weapons powers. The US Senate rejected ratification in 2001. |
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Term
| Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE) |
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Definition
| a treaty negotiated between the countries in NATO and the (now defunct) Soviet-led Warsaw Pact that placed numerical limits on a range of conventional "heavy" weapons, including tanks and other armored combat vehicles, artillery, and fixed-wing and rotary combat aircraft permitted in the so-called Atlantic-to-the-Urals Zone (ATTU) region. |
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Term
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Definition
| technology that has peaceful uses but also has military applications. |
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Term
| Economic Community of West African States ECOWAS |
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Definition
| a regional group of 15 countries founded in 1975. Its mission is to promote economic integration, and it has also taken on some peacekeeping activities through its nonpermanent function called Economic Community's African States Monitoring Group ECOMOG |
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Term
| general and complete disarmament (GCD) |
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Definition
| the total absence of armaments. |
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Term
| Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty INF |
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Definition
| a treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union signed in 1987 that pledged the two countries to destroy all their ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. |
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Term
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Definition
| an alliance between interest groups, bureaucracies, and legislators that forms a military-industrial congressional complex |
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Term
| Missile Technology Control Regime MTCR |
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Definition
| A series of understanding that commits most of the countries capable of producing extended-range missiles to a ban on the export of ballistic missiles and related technology and that also pledges MTCR adherents to bring economic and diplomatic pressure to bear on countries that export missile-applicable technology. |
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Term
| national technical means NTM |
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Definition
| an arms control verification technique that involves using satellites, seismic measuring devices, and other equipment to identify, locate, and monitor the manufacturing, testing, or deployment of weapons or delivery vehicles, or other aspects of treaty compliance. |
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Term
| non-proliferation treaty NPT |
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Definition
| a multilateral treaty concluded in 1968 then renewed and made permanent in 1995. The parties to the treaty agree not to transfer nuclear weapons or in any way to "assist, encourage, or induce and nonnuclear state to manufacture or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons." Nonnuclear signatories of the NPT also agree not to build or accept nuclear weapons |
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Term
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Definition
| an alliance of 26 member countries, established in 1949 y Canada, the US, and most of the countries of Western Europe to defend its members from outside, presumably Soviet-led attack. In the era after the cold war, NATO has begun to admit members from Eastern Europe and has also expanded its mission to include peacekeeping. |
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Term
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Definition
| an arms control verification technique that involves stationing your or a neutral country's personnel in another country to monitor weapons or delivery vehicle manufacturing, testing, deployment, or other aspects of treaty compliance. |
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Term
| organization for security and cooperation in Europe OSCE |
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Definition
| series of conferences among 34 NATO, former Soviet bloc, and neutral European countries that led to permanent organization. Established by the 1976 Helsinki Accords |
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Term
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Definition
| a bottom up approach to avoidance of war based on the belief that it is wrong to kill |
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Term
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Definition
| the restoration of peace or the presentation of a breach of the peace by, if necessary, the assertive use of military force to compel one or more of the sides involved in a conflict to cease their violent actions |
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Term
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Definition
| the use of military means by an international organization such as the United Nations to prevent fighting, usually by acting as a buffer between combatants. The international force is neutral between the combatants and must have been invited to be present by at least on of the combatants. |
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Term
| strategic arms limitation talks treaty (SALT I) |
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Definition
| the strategic arms limitation talks treaty signed in 1972 |
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Term
| strategic arms limitation talks treaty (SALT II) |
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Definition
| the strategic arms limitation talks treaty signed in 1979 but withdrawn by president carter from the US Senate before ratification in response to the soviet invasion of Afghanistan. |
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Term
| Strategic arms reduction talks treat I (START I) |
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Definition
| a nuclear weapons treaty signed by the Soviet Union and the US in 1991 and later re-signed with Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine that will limit Russia and the US to 1,600 delivery vehicles and 6,000 strategic explosive nuclear devices each, with the other three countries destroying their nuclear weapons or transferring them to Russia |
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Term
| strategic arms reduction talks treaty II (START II) |
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Definition
| a nuclear weapons treaty signed by the soviet union and the US in 1993 which established nuclear war head and bomb ceilings of 3,500 for the US and 2,997 for Russia by the year 2003 and that also eliminated some types of weapons systems. As of February 1997 the treaty had not been ratified by the Russian parliament and, therefore, the treaty is not legally in effect. |
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Term
| strategic offensive reductions treaty (SORT) |
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Definition
| a treaty signed in 2002 by President George W Bush and President Vladimir Putin. Under the treaty's provisions, the US and Russia agree to reduce their nuclear arsenals of nuclear warheads and bombs to no more than 2,200 by 2012. When presidents Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin had earlier committed to the general levels established in the treaty, they had referred to the potential accord as the third Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START III), but that name was abandoned by Bush and Putin |
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