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122 Int'l Lab. Rev. 397 (1983)
Guns and Butter: Can the World Have Both

handle is hein.journals/intlr122 and id is 411 raw text is: International Labour Review, Vol. 122, No. 4, July-August 1983 Guns and butter: Can the world have both? Inga THORSSON * This article deals with a global future which must be planned and prepared today-with the need to stop the arms race and convert, through disarmament measures, resources now used for military purposes to con- structive development goals. Efforts to achieve gradual and controlled disarmament are pursued through political negotiations at the bilateral and multilateral levels. In the nuclear age this expresses the growing need felt by the peoples of the world for security and survival since, despite decades of failure to reach verifiable disarmament agreements, such negotiations are still seen as the only way of achieving results. There is now, however, a renewed emphasis on the need to convince peoples and political leaders not only of the military perils of the arms race but also of its serious economic effects on rich and poor countries alike. Thus, before attempting an analysis of the economic and social consequences of disarmament, it seems necessary to discuss the economic and social consequences of the arms race. As Commonwealth Secretary-General Shridath Ramphal has pointed out, the worsening economic crisis is a crisis of contraction, marked by deepening poverty, mounting unemployment, massive debts and payment deficits, collapsed commodity prices and a rising barricade of protectionism. This could lead to an era of instability that might alter the political geography of the world and unleash forces of apocalyptic dimensions if we do not face up, as an international community, to the urgent need to move towards global management of the world economy and to work towards its recovery. In this connection the arms race is one crucial factor affecting growth and productivity, employment and inflation, international trade and monetary systems, and hence development. There have been many attempts over the years to relate disarmament more concretely to development, and to show how the arms race weakens * Under-Secretary of State, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Sweden. The author was Chairman of the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts on the Relationship between Disarmament and Development. Copyright 0 International Labour Organisation 1983

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