Undergraduate - UnitAZA2703 - The global politics of arms control and disarmament

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2013 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

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Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	School of Social Science, South Africa
Offered	Not offered in 2013
Coordinator(s)	Dr Anna-Mart van Wyk

Synopsis

This unit examines policies that have been developed to facilitate the emergence of a less militarised form of world politics. Three themes are addressed;
First - general issues involved in efforts to manage and stop the arms race are introduced.

Second - attempts to restrain the proliferation of nuclear, chemical, biological weapons of mass destruction and conventional weapons are outlined analysed. The role of South Africa as a world leader in nuclear non-proliferation efforts will be highlighted, as well as the position of Africa in the global nuclear regime.

Third - the prospects for various degrees of demilitarisation are discussed in the light of contemporary developments in world politics.Here, specific emphasis will be placed on the challenges of disaramament in Africa.

Outcomes

The unit has the following objectives:

to provide a sense of the conceptual and historical context required for understanding developments in international arms control;
to introduce students to key international arms control agreements, with specific emphasis on the role of South Africa in promoting arms control;
to introduce students to the unique challenges of disarmament in Africa;

and

to enhance the ability of students to engage in critical reflection and produce reasoned, soundly structured and well presented debate on the place of arms control in the international system.