Dubious Sentinel - Canada and the World Military Order

Publisher:  Swift, Richard; Regehr, Ernie; The Development Education Centre, Toronto, Canada
Year Published:  1981  
Pages:  42pp  
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX2127

Abstract:  This education kit is designed to acquaint Canadians with the various aspects of the world military order and its implications for Canadians. The kit is divided into six sections, beginning with analysis of the issue and ending with a guide to action. A bibliography is included for those who wish to delve deeper into an understanding of the global military order.

Section I, "The World Military Order", describes militarism as the result of a process whereby military values, ideology and patterns of behaviour achieve a dominating influence over the political, social, economic and external affairs of the state. This section points out several examples of militarism: the world spends over $400 billion a year on military forces and weapons; developing nations, despite severe food shortages, use five times as much foreign exchange for the import of arms as for agricultural machinery; devekped nations have spent a yearly average of $5 per capita since 1960 to aid the development of poorer nations, in contrast to $95 per capita for their own military use.

Section II: "Canadian Military Spending and Waste", argues that the real crisis of our society - poverty, unemployment, inflation and an increasingly contaminated environment - are ignored or worsened by diverting energy and resources into the arms race.

Section III, "The arms Trade and the Third World", points out that because of the arms trade, many people of the Third world are experiencing the mass devastation of war without a shot being fired. It is their need for food, decent housing, clean water, education, and the basic necessities of life that are being neglected.