The global death toll from wars and conflicts is at an all-time high, while the fight against climate change, poverty and hunger is stagnating and authoritarian movements are putting pressure on democracies in Europe and the USA. In the Peace Report 2024, Germany’s leading peace research institutes make recommendations for reducing the causes of conflict and breaking spirals of violence. In view of these global challenges, arms control plays an important role in securing peace and preventing escalation.
Anja Dahlmann, Christopher Fichtlscherer, Lukas Mengelkamp and other colleagues from IFSH and the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt have co-authored the chapter “Rüstungsdynamiken / Aufrüstung einhegen”. They discuss topics such as rising military spending and the expansion of the arms industry, nuclear deterrence in Europe, trends in arms control and military technology trends using the example of the war in Ukraine.
Reducing the Risk of Nuclear Escalation Through Arms Control
In 2023, global arms spending increased. An effective arms control policy can contain expensive arms-race dynamics, the risk of further military confrontations and the danger of nuclear escalation. New technologies such as artificial intelligence and unmanned weapons systems revolutionize warfare. At the same time, they increase the ability to react on the battlefield and thus increase the risk of escalation in conflicts. Internationally binding rules for the development and use of these technologies are urgently needed. Additionally, IT systems and critical infrastructures should be better protected against cyber attacks.
The authors make further recommendations, including outlawing nuclear weapons tests, strengthening norms against chemical and biological weapons, and promoting risk management and conventional defense instead of nuclear armament.
Link to the Current Peace Report
The central recommendations of the German peace and conflict research institutes to the German Federal Government can be found at: https://www.friedensgutachten.de/2024/ausgabe/stellungnahme/FGA2024_Statement.pdf. The complete Peace Report with detailed information, figures and assessments on the individual aspects is available to download at: www.friedensgutachten.de
