Demilitarization 1. Definition. The act of destroying the military offensive or defensive advantages inherent in certain types of materiel. The term includes mutilation, dumping at sea, scrapping, burning, or alteration designed to prevent the further use of such materiel for its originally intended military or lethal purpose.
Often the result of the retributive politics of post-war diplomatic adjustment, legal attempts to ensure that formerly aggressive states do not acquire the military establishments, logistics or weaponry to threaten their neighbours or international peace and security, are often doomed to failure.
This article considers the demilitarization sanctions imposed against Iraq in the aftermath of the Gulf War of 1991 in the historic context of other such efforts, most notably the sanctions imposed against Germany under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles (and subsequently enforced by the League of Nations).
The primary elements shared by most demilitarization regimes are: (1) qualitative and quantitative restrictions on weapons systems; (2) control and monitoring mechanisms; (3) the rhetorical ambition of global and regional disarmament; (4) unrealistic deadlines for compliance; and (5) the implied threat of resumption of hostilities if disarmament is not achieved.
For instance, tanks and rocket launchers are candidates for sale as scrap after demilitarization; tents and combat boots can be reused or sold to the public.
As property is acquired by the Department of Defense (DoD), one of the military services or a defense agency assigns a demilitarization code to the material, based on specific DoD-wide policy.
An audit trail is established for the property, including verification that demilitarization is accomplished.
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