1 Introduction

The Government is working to promote a UN-led world order based on cooperation between states, where conflicts are resolved on the basis of international law, and all use of force is in conformity with the UN Charter.

The Government believes that improved security for all can be achieved at considerably lower levels of armaments than those that exist today. This will require balanced and verifiable reductions. Furthermore, extensive disarmament will free up substantial resources that can be used for human and social development.

The Government’s aim is that Norway should take a proactive role in promoting arms control and disarmament as regards nuclear weapons, other weapons of mass destruction and conventional weapons. We will seek to achieve this through binding international cooperation that is as broad-based as possible, in line with the Government’s policy platform.

The challenges are formidable, as regards both nuclear and conventional weapons. The number of nuclear-weapon states has increased since the end of the Cold War, and several more countries have attempted to acquire nuclear weapons. The proliferation of nuclear technology will increase in parallel with the expected increase in civilian nuclear energy capacity in the years ahead. This will pose new challenges to the non-proliferation efforts. At the same time, we know that terrorists are actively seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction. The Government therefore gives high priority to efforts to prevent the proliferation of such weapons.

However, we know that most of those who are killed or wounded in modern wars are victims of conventional weapons, particularly small arms and other light weapons. The vast majority of them are civilians. The largest share of global military spending goes to conventional weapons and equipment. In many cases, the trade in such weapons – particularly small arms – is very poorly controlled and often veiled in secrecy and a lack of transparency. This paves the way for corruption and crime. Certain types of conventional weapons have particularly serious humanitarian consequences. These include landmines and cluster munitions, and also small arms due the large number of such arms that are in circulation in conflict areas. Landmines and cluster munitions do not distinguish between civilians and military personnel, and they kill and injure civilians both during and after conflicts. The Government therefore considers it particularly important to regulate the use of such weapons, for example by means of international bans.

Added together, the challenges we are faced with are huge. However, extensive arms control and disarmament efforts are being carried out under the auspices of the UN and other international organisations, in a number of other multinational arenas and at bilateral level. Norway participates actively in these efforts, and the Government wants to further strengthen our proactive role. The Seven-Nation Initiative, which in addition to Norway, involves Australia, Chile, Indonesia, Romania, South Africa and the UK, is a key element here.

The following chapter explores the main challenges that international arms control and disarmament efforts are confronted with, while Chapter 3 presents the Government’s priorities and concrete measures and initiatives in these fields.