Achieving a Global Peace Dividend

Abstract

This dissertation aims to extend the knowledge available on the subject of the peace dividend, specifically in the area of how to capture the peace dividend opportunity and how to maximise it to achieve enhanced human development. Through an analysis of national and international case studies which report on recent experiences with reduced milex, this paper will report on the magnitude of the peace dividend in two industrialised nations (USA and France) and two African developing countries (Ethiopia and Kenya). ... Recommendations will be made regarding the following: (a) measures to minimise the short-run adjustments (b) measures to maximise the long-run social rate of return (c) optimal economic and social conditions and (d) preferred economic policies which together will enable a maximum peace dividend to be achieved. This overall aim is chosen chiefly to assist developing countries and regions with their capturing of the peace dividend. Whilst many of the developed countries have embarked on the process of disarmament, many developing countries have yet to do so because they face ongoing security concerns and/or absence of political will. It is hoped that this paper will provide a blueprint for developing countries to assist them with achieving national security, disarmament and enhanced human development. ... To assist in developing the above recommendations the following specific objectives will also be achieved: (a) specify the extent of the peace dividend post Cold War (1985-1995) (b) ascertain how the peace dividend has been spent ie., if and in what ways resources have been reallocated from military expenditure to other uses in a number of developed and developing countries, specifically, the United States and France, and developing countries on the African continent, Ethiopia and Kenya. (c) make policy recommendations regarding how the peace dividend might be implemented for maximum economic development and minimum adjustment costs (d) identify the factors inhibiting the attainment of a peace dividend and how these might be overcome.