Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-6d856f89d9-jrqft Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T07:01:39.646Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - The Manhattan Project to ‘Operation Rolling Thunder’

Humanitarian Disarmament Sidelined

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2020

Treasa Dunworth
Affiliation:
University of Auckland
Get access

Summary

The chapter explores the ways in which, and the reasons why, humanitarian discourse in disarmament was marginalised in the first two decades following the Second World War. The chapter starts by providing a brief overview of the way in which weapons technology developed in advance of and during the Second World War, looking in particular at anti-personnel landmines, incendiary weapons, major developments in aerial warfare and nuclear weapons. It also identifies reasons why the overall environment was so resistant to humanitarian disarmament in this period, including a possible desensitisation to the harms wrought by the War, the security rather than peace focus of the new United Nations and the way in which humanitarianism itself became institutionalised and therefore politically suspect. Despite the inhospitable environment, important efforts were made through the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross to regulate the use of indiscriminate weapons through its attempt to persuade states to adopt various rules against particular types of weapons and means of warfare. Although ultimately unsuccessful, this campaign was a clear attempt to use humanitarian arguments to support calls for legal prohibitions on the use of certain weapons.

Type
Chapter
Information
Humanitarian Disarmament
An Historical Enquiry
, pp. 48 - 79
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×