2.3 German-Dutch Conference and Editorial Projects

Since the mid 1980s, AFES-PRESS and members of the Interuniversity Network for Studies on Technology Assessment in Defence (INSTEAD) in the Netherlands have closely cooperated on several conference and joint publication projects.

• AFES-PRESS -INSTEAD Workshop, 1988
  
  
• Conference Project in 1991 (Amsterdam University Press, 1992)
  
  
• Book Project in 1994-1996 (Lit Publishers, 1997)

AFES-PRESS -INSTEAD Workshop, 1988

During the tri-annual conference of the German Political Science Association (DVPW) in 1988 in Darmstadt, members of AFES-PRESS and INSTEAD organised a panel for specialists working on weapons technologies. For a brief review of the results see:

• Hans Günter Brauch: "Spezialistentreffen: Strategische Stabilität und politische Institutionen des Defense Technology Assessment", in: Hans-Hermann Hartwich (Hrsg.): Macht und Ohnmacht politischer Institutionen (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1989): 490-501.

Conference Project in 1991

In late October 1991, AFES-PRESS and INSTEAD (Inter-university Network for Studies on Technology Assessment in Defence in the Netherlands) with the financial support of the German Research Society (DFG), the Ministry of Education in Baden-Württemberg and of the Ministry of Defence in the Netherlands co-organised the Seventh AFES-PRESS Conference that attracted 70 arms control exports from 16 countries, including the USA, Russia, India, Japan and Peru. This volume includes the abstracts of all presentations and a summary of the discussions both in the plenaries and in the working groups.

During the first day the presentations focused on the political and technical aspects, specifically on the weapons innovation process and on efforts to control military R&D in the space, the biological and chemical context, with regard to arms embargoes and export controls and it ended with a dinner speech by Ambassador Jonathan Dean. During the second day three existing control regimes for dual use technologies, the missing arms control regimes for arms exports and national implementation of the existing regimes in the Federal Republic of Germany and problems of the international and national control regimes were reviewed. During the third day policy proposals for limiting vertical proliferation by constraining military R&D perspectives from North and South were debated that are reflected in a Mosbach Memorandum by the organisers based on the analyses.

Joint Publication Amsterdam University Press, 1992

• Hans Günter Brauch, H.J. van der Graaf, John Grin und Wim Smit (Eds.): Controlling the Development and Spread of Military Technology (Amsterdam: VU University Press, 1992).
  
  
• Hans Günter Brauch: in: Frankfurter Rundschau, 1.4.1992.

Book Project in 1994-1996

Project Description

The study was conducted by AFES-PRESS in close cooperation with three Dutch specialists 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).