1.5 Office for Technology Assessment
of the German Parliament (TAB)

The Office for Technology Assessment of the German Parliament (TAB) was set up by the German Parliament. In spring 1993, at the initiative of the joint Subcommittee "Disarmament and Arms Control" of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committees of the Bundestag a technology assessment project was initiated on the constraints and possibilities of an early arms control evaluation of new technologies. AFES-PRESS was one of several research institutions in Germany that were invited to participate in this project. The results of the whole project are contained in the final report:

• Thomas Petermann, Martin Socher, Christine Wennrich: Präventive Rüstungskontrolle bei Neuen Technologien. Utopie oder Notwendigkeit? (Berlin: edition sigma, 1997).

Research Project:
Preventive Arms Control and Military Technology Assessment

Brief Project Description

The study was conducted by AFES-PRESS in close cooperation with three Dutch colleagues that had worked extensively on technology assessment. The joint report for TAB had four aims: first, the new concept of preventive arms control was developed; second, existing institutions, instruments and procedures were described for the United States, the Netherlands and the Federal Republic of Germany with respect to the linkage between weapons innovation and civil research in areas that are sensitive for three arms control regimes (NPT, BWC, CWC); third, it was argued whether and how military technology assessment could be introduced as an instrument of preventive arms control in the parliamentary system of the Federal Republic of Germany; and fourth, it was discussed which international initiatives the Federal Republic of Germany should undertake with respect to preventive arms control in OSCE, NATO, WEU, the EU and the United Nations. The book is organised in three parts: I. theoretical context (chapters 1 and 2); II. three empirical case studies on institutions, procedures and instruments regarding the weapons innovation process and arms control in the United States of America (chap. 3), the Netherlands (chap. 4) and the Federal Republic of Germany (chap. 5) and III. conclusions (chap. 6) and recommendations (chap. 7).

Project Output: Publications

• Hans Günter Brauch - Henk van de Graaf - John Grin - Wim Smit: Militärtechnikfolgenabschätzung und präventive Rüstungskontrolle. Institutionen, Verfahren und Instrumente [Military Defence Impact Assessment and Preventive Arms Control. Institutions, Procedures and Instruments].
  For an English summary of this study (PDF file, 93 KB)

• Hans Günter Brauch: "Military Technology Assessment and Preventive Arms Control: Institutions, Procedures and Institutions", in: Hendrik Bullens, Seiitsu Tachibana (Eds.) with the assistance of Wayne Reynolds, Restructuring Security Concepts, Postures and Industrial Base - IPRA Security and Disarmament Commission Paper 9, (Mosbach: AFES-PRESS, 1997): 147-152.