Approaching the one-trillion-dollar mark....

• Position: World expenditures for military purposes - Disarmament Preview

Approaching the one-trillion-dollar mark...

Forty-three years ago, the United Nations was established to save "succeeding generations from the scourge of war" and to promote international peace and security "with the least diversion for armaments of the world's human and economic resources". Over the years, no subject has received more continuous or serious attention at the United Nations than disarmament.

The General Assembly this year is to hold a third special session on disarmament, scheduled from 31 May to 25 June in New York. Experts feel there are several reasons it has every chance to become a milestone in the disarmament process.

The current relaxation of international tension and improved East-West relations has created a favourable political environment for the session. The 1987 Soviet-American treaty on intermediate-and shorter-range missiles, regarded by many as the world's first major nuclear disarmament measure, could give new impetus to the disarmament process. Ongoing negotiations between the two super-Powers in Geneva, it is hoped, may result in drastic cuts in their strategic nuclear arsenals.

Great strides have been made in the Conference on Disarmament towards a global ban on the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons. The Final Document of the 1987 International Conference on the Relationship between Disarmament and Development--adopted by consensus--set forth ideas which received near-universal support.

However, despite all these positive signs, concern over the arms race grows. Numerous efficient deadly weapons are still being produced. The warheads of a single modern nuclear submarine have more explosive power than all the munitions used in the Second World War. Between 1960 and 1980, world expenditures for military purposes almost doubled in real terms--today estimated at in excess of $900 billion a year. If present trends continue, the astounding figure may well reach $1 trillion a year.

To check alarming trends...

The third special session will review and appraise the present international situation, especially in light of the vital objective of terminating the arms race and the pressing need to achieve substantial progress in the field of disarmament.

It will also: . assess the implementation of the decisions and recommendations adopted at the first and second special sessions of the General Assembly on disarmament, held in 1978 and 1982; . consider a comprehensive programme of disarmament; . assess...