Humanitarian Disarmament: An Historical Enquiry represents a substantial and timely addition to the existing and growing literature on the humanitarian movement within the field of international disarmament law. Treasa Dunworth's underlying thesis is fairly simple to grasp, and essentially challenges “the ‘big bang’ theory that presents the [Anti-Personnel Landmines] Convention as a paradigm shift from an older traditional state-centric approach towards a more progressive humanitarian approach to the regulations of weapons”. Rather Dunworth perceives the recent incarnation of the “humanitarian disarmament” movement as a “re-emergence of a much older and long-standing sensibility of humanitarianism in disarmament discourse”.
This relatively straightforward theory is supplemented throughout the book by insightful, and extensively researched analysis tracing the presence and developing influence of humanitarian ideals within disarmament discourse since the 1868 St Petersburg Declaration, through to the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons in Chapters 2, 3, and 4. Equally, however, Dunworth is keen to emphasis through this historical overview that the humanitarian framing of disarmament has not been a progressively influential movement, but has instead been marked by both periods of successes and failures. The historical contextualisation ultimately supports Dunworth's claim in Chapter 5 that while the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (APMBC) represents a significant part of the history of the humanitarian framing of disarmament, it is not a sui generis moment that signified the beginning of humanitarian ideals into disarmament discourse as is often claimed. Rather, Dunworth suggests the APMBC, the Cluster Munitions Convention (CCM), and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) can each be considered an “exercise in humanitarian disarmament”.
Chapter 7, for example, constitutes an impressive attempt to exemplify her core argument “in practice” by tracing the humanitarian impetus behind efforts to prohibit nuclear weapons since 1945, culminating with the adoption of the TPNW in 2017. Dunworth convincingly demonstrates how nuclear disarmament campaigns have consistently employed a humanitarian ethos since 1945, but suggests that it was re-organisation of civil society-led activism under the leadership of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons in 2007 that proved a catalytic event in making this framing more explicit. Moreover, while acknowledging that the TPNW process was “modelled” on the APMBC and CCM, the author demonstrates that humanitarian disarmament remains a constantly evolving process by highlighting the unique remedial measures relating to victim assistance and environmental remediation under Article 6 of the TPNW.
While Dunworth's analysis up to this stage consolidates her central thesis, Chapter 8 ends by considering various critiques of humanitarianism generally. Consequently, the author suggests that efforts to “locate the birth” of humanitarian disarmament with the APMBC represented an attempt to cleanse disarmament negotiations of political influence by instead presenting humanitarian disarmament as a “morally superior” framing. At the same time, Dunworth suggests humanitarianism itself remains susceptible to exploitation through politicisation, in order to advance state-driven interests under the guise of altruistic humanitarian ideals, through concepts such as ‘humanitarian intervention’ or justifying military intervention in Iraq in 2003 to prevent the proliferation of, and possible use of weapons of mass destruction.
Overall, the captivating, well-researched analysis throughout Humanitarian Disarmament, coupled with the rich theoretical discussion in Chapter 8 leaves Dunworth questioning whether humanitarian disarmament should be held as the “holy grail, as the untouchable answer to all disarmament issues”, though without dismissing the importance of humanitarianism altogether. The author concludes by calling for a broader consideration of, and engagement with new or presently underexplored discursive approaches to disarmament by international lawyers, by incorporating fields such as human rights law in greater detail.
