Landmine Arms Control

摘要

Perhaps 80 to 110 million unexploded mines are now scattered over 64 countriesworldwide. These mines kill or maim as many as 2,000 people a month most of them civilians, many of them children. The purpose of the paper is to evaluate the pros and cons of addressing this problem via negotiated arms control agreements to ban the production, stockpiling, export and/or use of mines. Our principal findings are that neither the costs nor the benefits are likely to be as great as many have argued. Because costs and benefits are incommensurate, landmine arms control could not be an open and shut case either for or against on its analytical merits, but the value judgment required to reach a conclusion is likely to be a closer call than many in the current debate would suggest.