Assessing The Effectiveness Of International Organizations In Addressing The Spread Of Disease And Weapons Proliferation

Assess to what extent international organisations have been successful in addressing either the spread of disease or weapons proliferation. Provide specific examples to support your argument.

International Organizations and their Role in Dealing with Weapons Proliferation and Disease Spread

International non-governmental organizations are being effective in preventing the spreading of weapons proliferation but to a certain extent. This is due to the reason that these international organizations are being dedicated towards eradicating of arms race from the earth and thus they are the most effective among all the available international organizations around the world in dealing with different arms issue. However, on the other hand, they are number of counter arguments being raised and witnessed in different times regarding their effectiveness in dealing with the issue. Thus, it is important to determine the extent to which these international organizations are effective in eradicating spreading of weapons (Kelsen 2017). This is getting further amplified due to the reason of increase of terrorism around the world and negative diplomatic relationship between the countries. More countries are getting involved in arms race including the race for acquiring more nuclear weapons for deterrence. International organizations are also having an important role in preventing this proliferation of weapons and creating a more weapon free world for the future generation (Hehir 2013).

In this essay, the role of the international organizations in dealing with these issues will be discussed and critically analyzed. In addition, real world examples will be given to evaluate their effectiveness in fighting the identified issue.

Some of the major international organizations in dealing with the diseases are United Nations Security Council; Arms control association and International Atomic Energy Agency. Among these organizations, United Nations and Arms Control Association are directly dealing the global arms issue (Rider 2013). On the other hand, the effectiveness of United Nations Security Council is more due to the membership of majority of the countries around the world in the United Nations. These organizations are the major sources of fund in different social activities in fighting weapons proliferation around the world.

One of the major success stories for the international organizations in eradicating weapons proliferation is reducing nuclear arms race from the world. It is reported that cases of nuclear arms got reduced and almost all the countries are signed for no development of nuclear arms. It is the credit of the weapons proliferation to provide the guidance and regulations to every country around the world and getting it stopped. However, on the other hand, their effectiveness in fighting arms race is also limited due to the reason that there are still few countries namely, North Korea, Afghanistan and Middle Eastern countries, which are still affected by arms business and there are still cases of loss emerging (Tomsen 2013). One of the major limitations for these organizations is the dependency on the local authority for infrastructural support. This is due to the reason that weapons proliferation are providing the fund and the advisories but the human and other resources should be provided by the local authority and the success of the entire scheme is depended on the effectiveness of the local authority. However, in the case of North Korea and Afghanistan, there are areas where the rule of law is nil and arms race is still relevant. This is restricting the effectiveness of these organizations in fighting with weapon proliferation (Bader and Schuster 2015).

Success Stories and Limitations of International Organizations in Fighting Weapons Proliferation

Another major challenge for the weapons proliferation is the loss of control of government in different countries especially in the African underdeveloped countries and Middle Eastern countries (Isard and Anderton 2014). There are huge flow of fund infused in these counties in arms trade among the people and enhancing the risk of weapon proliferation. Some of the major initiatives in this case are the fund sanctioned by the world bodies against these countries. This is denoting the success of the weapons proliferation in securing the interest of the common people and peaceful world. However, on the other hand it is also reported that more than 104 million children across the world are under threat of war and this portion is mainly from the developing and underdeveloped countries (Omar, Wisniewski and Nolte 2017). It is also being reported that there are number of countries mainly from the Eastern Africa are deeply affected by war. Furthermore, more than 35 percent of the children from the African region are having more death risk than they were few years ago. This also shows that even though the weapons proliferation is trying hard to overcome the issue of weapon proliferation but it is again emerging from different sources. In addition, issues such as political turbulences in the African countries are further posing challenges for the weapons proliferation in working towards the eradication of arms race.

Thus, it can be concluded that weapons proliferation are effective to a certain extent in fighting with the arms race and trade worldwide. Their limitations in having the dependency over the local authorities are creating issues and restricting their effectiveness in fighting with the issue. Moreover, in the recent time, the global political turbulences in fighting terrorism, diplomatic issues between the economic superpowers and political instability mainly in the African countries are creating issues for the weapons proliferation in working effectively (Asongu et al. 2018).  These organizations can be concluded as effective only when their objective will get fulfilled but as of now there are still huge areas of improvement remains. On one hand, the rate of emergence of war is being reduced due to the collective effort of these organizations and on the other hand, majority of the causes for weapon proliferation cannot get fully eradicated from the world. This depicts the limitation of their effectiveness in fighting this issue. This can also be concluded that the issue of weapon proliferation cannot be solved only with the help of international organizations such as Security Council; rather the consensus between the different political bodies around the world is required and important for the resolution of this issue. Only when the consensus can be created between the countries and their governments in mutual form, issue of weapon proliferation can be avoided.

Challenges Faced by International Organizations in Combating Weapons Proliferation

The weapon proliferation means spreading of nuclear weapons, firearms, weapons that are applicable to nuclear technology and may not be considered as Nuclear Weapon states by The Treaty of Non-proliferation of Nuclear weapons. There are many options who have showed their negative responses towards the weapon proliferation because of the increased chances and risks of nuclear warfare, which shall not only be held responsible for deteriorating the local and international relations, but can also create infringement on the national dominion of states (Rapoport 2014). The major countries that are assumed to possess the nuclear weapons are India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea. The nuclear proliferation also includes the sharing and exchange of information between nations about the nuclear weapons and nuclear technologies associated with it.

For example, the on-site inspection in Iraq found traces of nuclear destruction and it had been done for ensuring prevention of weapon proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the future as well. It was mainly associated with the Gulf War that was fought ten years before for giving freedom to Kuwait. Though, it was accomplished still there were certain questions regarding whether Iraq still possessed the mass destruction and nuclear weapons or not along with basic capabilities required to produce deadly weapons that could be a threat for nations and people (Malam 2014). There were evidences regarding the use of chemical and nuclear weapons while starting war against Iran and long range missiles were part of the war as well. It was thought that Iraq possess all the important firepower and nuclear weapons, though there were no evidences of the same in terms of achievement of biological and nuclear weapons. The cease fire conditions made it easy and allowed the Security Council resolution 687 to understand that Iraq had got rid of the nuclear weapons and long range missiles along with the facilities that were managed to produce those weapons and create mass destruction (Ouagrham-Gormley 2013). The weapon proliferation was needed to be stopped, which enabled the Council to take immediate actions for preventing the dangers and risks that might be experienced in case Iraq possessed nuclear weapons that could be a serious threat for the neighboring nations too. The UN Special Commission in Iraq kept the nuclear weapons’ capacity and ability monitored at regular intervals and even worked in compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention to make negotiations regarding the prevention of weapon proliferation (Brown and Kaplow 2014).

Conclusion

 The international organizations remained committed to non-proliferation such as the International Atomic Energy Agency or IAEA promoted the Atoms of Peace campaign for making the researchers and scientists knowledgeable about the nuclear technologies and nuclear weapons so that the various nations can practice secret weapons program to possess enough fire power in their respective nations. The organization has promoted the use of nuclear energy and also maintained a safeguard system related to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty for managing the stocks of plutonium, uranium along with the other associated nuclear technologies that could be used for maintaining peace and prevent any sort of programs or campaigns related to the weapon proliferation (Bleek and Lorber 2014). Considering the benefits of maintaining peace and security achieved through negotiations, the UN Security Council focused on engaging the women altogether and allowed them to put their efforts to manage peace and security.

There were certain threats that caused risks to international security and all of these were related to the cyber attacks, terrorism activities, nuclear weapons’ mass destruction and spreading of harmful diseases. For maintaining peace, the involvement of women is important, which can assist in managing equal participation of women and preventing any forms of discrimination through implementation of effective policy responses (Way and Weeks 2014). The weapon proliferation was always considered as a major global political issue that needed a proper and effective global solution, for which, the involvement of Government organizations was essential. The international organizations implemented confidence development measures to promote transparency and eliminate the components of secrecy in military activities and nuclear weapon proliferation. The individuals have different opinions related to the veto power reform for the five major members of the Security Council. The veto power was one of the major barriers that caused threat to the enforcement of treaty (Jacobson et al. 2014). There was poor compliance, due to which, the Security Council could not take any necessary actions and thus revising was done for the various rules, regulations and procedures to prevent the political barriers, manage peace and security too.

The Disarmament Commission contributed to the control efforts put forward by the UN Security Council and made good contribution to the proper management of policies and procedures. The setting of norms, rules and regulations further helped in studying the feasibility of weapon proliferation ideas and NGO recommendations regarding control of firearms and nuclear weapons. The international organization named UNICEF also put the humanitarian costs of small weapons consider the impact of United Nations Conference related to the illegal trade in small arms and light weapons (Kroenig 2016). UNICEF provided a helping hand by supporting the people who were the victims of nuclear warfare and even enabled partnership working with NGOs to promote good network management and advocacy activities. The ongoing efforts put by UNICEF further helped in keeping the nuclear weapons and light arms away from children and prevent violation of rights of children as well. One such campaign could be the ‘Don’t let guns kill our dreams’ that shed light on the threats caused by light weapons and small arms along with spreading awareness about the landmines (Malam 2014). There was increased importance of proper teachings to prevent violence and prevent the gun culture, thereby managed education and other extracurricular activities for the children to maintain peace, disarmament and prevent weapon proliferation too.   

Conclusion

The essay was presented to discuss about the extent to which the international organizations managed to address the spreading of diseases and weapon proliferation. There were several health issues like polio, tuberculosis, etc. that was spread after the war and even there were threats related to the diseases spread all around. The international organizations like WHO, UNICEF, etc. contributed to the controlling of these diseases and even made sure to spread knowledge about how to mitigate these issues. The weapon proliferation meant managing information about use of nuclear weapons and materials with the health disease being controlled with the efforts put by UNICEF while the Security Council and International Atomic Energy Agency focused on prevented weapon proliferation and maintained peace all over the world.

References

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