In 2005 IPB launched its programme, ‘Disarmament for Sustainable Development’ (D for D), which was designed to direct widespread, public concern to the ongoing, high level of global military spending, and the evidence that all weapons – both the devastating weapons of mass destruction and those used on a frequent basis (small arms, cluster bombs, landmines, etc.) seriously impede sustainable development. Since several world conflicts over the previous decade demonstrated that military solutions were not useful in the attempt to establish peace throughout the world, IPB advocates for reductions in defense budgets and the adoption of a ‘human security’ approach.
The Disarmament for Sustainable Development programme focuses on three thematic areas:
- military spending,
- impacts of weapons on development,
- justifications for investments in militarism.
Since 2011, the central focus of the program consists of military and social spending. The various concepts of these terms are discussed in greater detail in the book, Warfare or Welfare? as well as in a follow-up book, Whose Priorities? Both books provide examples of creative campaigning by NGOs and other civil society organisations that have taken up these issues. More recent publications focus on the links between military spending and the Development Agenda of the United Nations, as well as the challenge of climate change.
