Project Ploughshares turns 20.

Project Ploughshares began official life on July 1, 1976 as a "working group on militarism and under-development," reflecting the experiences of its co-founders, Ernie Regehr and Murray Thomson. During the early 1970s, both had witnessed the way in which military spending drained cash, and military security obsessions drained energy and confidence from human development activities. Ernie, now Project Ploughshares' Director of Policy and Public Affairs, had completed a three-year Mennonite Central Committee (Canada) study assignment in southern Africa while Murray was at the time the executive director of CUSO. Within a few months, Ploughshares and the United Church group CANDA (Canadian Defence Alternatives) amalgamated, adding the exploration of alternative, less militaristic national security strategies to the project's mandate. (For a more detailed and personal look at Ploughshares' formation, see "Reflections" by Murray Thomson, page 8.)

The project's strategy was to work in two concurrent phases. The first built a resource base through the study and research of defence policy and the arms trade with an emphasis on Canada, while the second focussed on developing alternative policies and, through public education programs, gaining support for these policies.

In 1977, Ploughshares officially became a coalition of the Canadian Council of Churches. This was a unique arrangement, through which the Council became the definer and custodian of the Ploughshares mandate, but not the direct overseer of the implementation of that mandate. Instead, the Council called on churches and other institutions to come together to form a Project Ploughshares Board and take responsibility for carrying out the mandate. This general arrangement continues today and provides a broad base from which to work against the effects of militarism. Although Ploughshares sponsors have varying Christian traditions or secular social justice orientations, common ground is found in the set of assumptions within which Ploughshares operates - that war is to be avoided, the use of force is to be minimized and conflict is to be resolved as much as possible in the interests of justice and without resort to violence.

Work begins

Project Ploughshares began immediately to build its research capability and its focus on Canadian defence policy analysis and criticism, areas which have made it unique among Canadian peace groups and have contributed to its success and longevity. The April 1977 inaugural issue of Ploughshares' flagship publication and main channel of outreach to the Canadian public, the Ploughshares Monitor, analysed and challenged the government's plan to purchase a large number of new fighter aircraft as part of a dramatic increase in defence spending. As part of its public education program, Ploughshares also initiated that year the first of many summer peace workshops on Grindstone Island (Portland, Ontario).

The first United Nations Special Session on Disarmament (UNSSOD 1) in 1978 was a critical event in extending Ploughshares' outreach as well as its opportunities for research and advocacy. In preparation for this event, Ploughshares staff prepared a discussion guide entitled A Time to DISARM (1) to stimulate a national dialogue on Canada and UNSSOD. They also travelled across Canada, gathering and leading study groups. Following the mid-year UNSSOD, many of these study groups elected to remain involved with Ploughshares in working on peace and development issues, thus beginning the formation of the Ploughshares local group network. In addition, the UN General Assembly at this time called for an annual worldwide observance of Disarmament Week, beginning each year on UN Day, October 24. This provided a focal point for peace activities which has been a central part of Project Ploughshares' community outreach. In 1980, with the cooperation of the Canadian Council of Churches, Ploughshares began these activities by sponsoring regional seminars across Canada. Many organizations and volunteers carried out programs that year, involving over 10,000 Canadians in 160 events, held in 30 cities in all 10 provinces.

An important UNSSOD 1 research initiative was the formation of a UN Group of Governmental Experts on the Relationship between Disarmament and Development. Under the sponsorship of the Canadian Department of External Affairs, Ploughshares produced for the UN Group of Experts one of its first major research reports on the Canadian defence industry. (2) The names of those receiving the 1980 report will be familiar to many - Geoffrey Pearson was External's Advisor on Disarmament and Arms Control Affairs at the time, and Bernard Wood was Canada's representative to the UN Experts Group.

The year 1980 also marked the beginning of the Ploughshares Military Industry Database. This unique collection of data on Canadian military industry production and export has become an indispensable tool for tracking and making visible Canadian arms sales.

The Cold War years

The 1980s was a decade of extremes for the peace movement, extending from the highest in international tensions to the incredible sight of the smashing of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. During most of this time the Cold War held sway, re-ignited by the Reagan administration's heavy military buildup and nuclear weapons deployment. The concern for the world's safety during a time of rapid increase in nuclear weapons and the nuclear brinkmanship practised by the USA and the USSR caused a rapid growth in the peace movement. Project Ploughshares, which saw its supporter numbers rise to over 10,000 by 1987 and its network of local groups grow from 16 in 1980 to 48 in 1987, worked to engage Canadians in the battle against nuclear weapons with publications such as Canada and the Nuclear Arms Race. (3) At the international level, the World Council of Churches commissioned Ploughshares to create a study guide on militarism world-wide, including the nuclear arms race. (4)

The growth of local groups provided Ploughshares with a strong profile in communities across Canada. This national network became more formally established in 1982 when the first "National Consultation" between members of local groups and the national office took place. Held annually since then, such consultations have provided the communication needed to build national programs. The strength of these programs is evident as one browses through past issues of the Ploughshares Monitor and makes note of local events, especially those held during Disarmament Weeks, and of national campaigns such as the Election Priorities Project in 1984 and the ON TRACK Campaign against nuclear weapons modernization in 1988-89. The latter initiative generated an incredible 2-million postcard blitz of Parliament Hill.

The Cold War period was also a time of connection between Project Ploughshares and the national churches. Although Ploughshares had received its mandate from the Canadian Council of Churches, it was congregational concern over the growing nuclear threat that created the first opportunity for collaboration between Ploughshares and the national churches. An important event in cementing this relationship was the churches' interest in presenting a common statement of concern to the Prime Minister. In 1982 and 1983, Canadian church leaders met with then Prime Minister Trudeau and presented statements drafted by Project Ploughshares specifically on the subject of nuclear weapons policy. In 1985, Ploughshares worked with the churches by preparing elements of a brief in relation to the foreign policy review undertaken by the government. Then, with a change in the international security climate already in the wind, the infamous 1987 Defence White Paper was issued, complete with Cold War rhetoric and equipment proposals. Project Ploughshares, with Canadian churches, created a response document which was in fact a pioneering effort in applying the concept of Common Security to defence policy.

Throughout the 1980s, Ploughshares built an increasingly rich body of policy alternatives to Canada's existing military policies and advocated these proposals at every opportunity. In 1985, for example, Ploughshares presented a brief opposing Canadian participation in the Strategic Defence Initiative (commonly known as `Star Wars') to the Special Joint Committee on Canada's International Relations. During the second half of the decade, Ploughshares increased its interaction with the government through a liaison staff position based in Ottawa.

A new world order was the hopeful phrase that accompanied the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of democracy in the former Iron Curtain countries.

Unfortunately, the world's preoccupation with the Cold War and the accompanying nuclear weapons escalation had really just diverted attention away from the military violence that continued to afflict millions in countries around the world. The basic environmental, social, economic, and political conditions that fuelled global insecurity and armed conflict had not been addressed and the resources that could have been devoted to alleviating such conditions had been squandered on the Cold War military buildup.

Fortunately, although much of Ploughshares' public effort during the 1980s was directed at nuclear issues, broad-based foundational work on the arms trade and militarism continued and, in fact, expanded during the decade. The Canadian Military Industry Database continued to grow as a unique compilation of military industry export information, and, through regular reporting in the Ploughshares Monitor, Canadians were provided with a unique view of Canada's participation in the international arms trade. (5) Visibility was given for the first time to Canada's indirect military trade where Canadian components, such as aircraft engines, are used by other countries in manufacturing military equipment which is then sold to countries which may be involved in armed conflict or human rights violations. (6) Ploughshares researchers were also providing increasingly detailed analyses of Canada's defence spending, working to counter the myth of the minuscule Canadian defence budget. (7)

The effect of militarism on human development worldwide, Ploughshares' original focus, continued to be investigated during the Cold War decade. The Ploughshares Monitor included articles on militarism in Africa (the Horn in particular), the Philippines, Nicaragua, Indochina, East Timor, and Kenya, as well as its first survey of global armed conflict in 1984. Such work began the process of understanding the true extent of armed conflict in the world today, its effects on literally millions of people, and its underlying causes.

Arguably the most important work undertaken by Ploughshares during the latter 1980s was the development of a true alternative security paradigm built around the concept of Common Security as articulated by the Palme Commission. The Common Security approach derives from the understanding that social and political peace cannot be based on military might or superiority, but depends on demilitarization and the development of social, political, and environmental conditions that sustain the welfare of people. As noted earlier, Ploughshares worked with Canadian church leaders to incorporate this approach into their response to the 1987 Defence White Paper. Common Security was further defined during the next few years, leading in 1990 to the creation of a comprehensive educational package entitled A New Light for the Planet. This kit of material was designed for workshop leaders to use in explaining Common Security themes, principles, and resulting policy recommendations. This work prepared Project Ploughshares to enter the 1990s with defence concepts that provided strong alternatives to the military buildups that characterized the "insecurity" policies of the 1980s.

The 1990s

Evidence that alternative security concepts were sorely needed soon appeared in the form of the August 2, 1990 invasion of Kuwait by Iraq's Saddam Hussein and the subsequent Gulf War. Far from signalling a new international order, the Gulf crisis was more like a response from the old world order: one that showed an undiminished faith that wars can end wars and more wars can initiate new world orders. In some important ways, however, the post-Cold War environment had changed. One of the most striking shifts was an increased opportunity for discussion of arms trade and Common Security concepts with both the NGO community and the Canadian government.

In the early 1990s, Project Ploughshares was directly involved in two arms trade initiatives. The first was the 1992 review of Canada's military export policy by a Sub-Committee of the House of Commons' Standing Committee on External Affairs and International Trade. The Sub-Committee adopted several Ploughshares proposals designed to create a more restrictive military export policy. Although the government did not move to implement the recommendations submitted to it, the report remains a valuable reference in the ongoing effort to rein in the arms trade.

The second initiative, to investigate ways of promoting transparency in arms transfers, had a more immediate outcome both at home and internationally. During the late 1980s, Ploughshares, with the Canadian Council of Churches, proposed to the government that an arms trade register would contribute to a climate of openness and shared information on which actual arms control measures could be built. Although initially sceptical, the government did move to study the proposal and eventually strongly supported the establishment of a 1990-91 United Nations study group on arms transfer transparency, appointing Ploughshares' Research Director as the Canadian member. From this second initiative came official annual reports of Canadian military exports and the establishment and annual reporting of a UN Arms Trade Register.

Project Ploughshares has also played a key role in the Canadian part of two remarkable NGO arms control campaigns aimed at the abolition of landmines and nuclear weapons. Both are ongoing and have been instrumental in forcing the nations of the world to debate the issues surrounding these horrific weapons in an unprecedented fashion. As NGOs gain influence at the UN and other fora, this marshalling of non-governmental forces will be an increasingly effective and necessary method of working for a demilitarized world.

Meanwhile, there has been a remarkable shift towards the adoption of Common Security language at the governmental level. This is most evident in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade's 1995 policy document, Canada in the World, in which DFAIT stresses that we must work towards" approaches that broaden the response to security issues beyond military options and focus on promoting international cooperation, building stability and on preventing conflict." (8) Project Ploughshares has, over the years, worked to develop positive lines of communication with DFAIT in an effort to promote Common Security concepts as government policies.

The Department of National Defence has proven more resistant to change, but in the 1994 defence white paper it did begin to acknowledge that both our understanding of the nature of security and the specific circumstances facing Canada have changed since the end of the Cold War.

Ploughshares itself has developed new post-Cold War programs that address more directly the intra-state armed conflicts that cause so much suffering worldwide. Underpinning the World Order and Regional Conflict Program (WORC) is the research Ploughshares has carried out over the past decade into the characteristics of regional armed conflict. This research is reflected in the annual Armed Conflicts Report, which is becoming a standard reference source, (9) and in Ploughshares' brief to the 1994 Parliamentary foreign and defence review committees. The brief noted that "It is urgent for Canada, and the international community generally, to recognize that international peace and stability will be achieved, not by military enforcement, but only to the extent that the international community devotes financial and human resources to building conditions that are conducive to peace." (10) More recently, Ploughshares has begun to define more concretely the concept of "peacebuilding" to assist both NGOs and governments in program development. (11)

Other important elements of the Ploughshares WORC Program have included working with expatriate Somali and Sudanese groups to foster citizen involvement in resolving the conflict in these countries, as well as working with international NGOs on regional security issues. Currently, Ploughshares' principal work in this regard is with the International Resource Group on Disarmament and Security in the Horn of Africa (IRG). (12) The IRG has been convened by a group of non-governmental humanitarian and policy organizations in the interests of stimulating an exploration of alternative security structures and disarmament measures for the Horn of Africa region as a whole.

Looking to the future

Although it is useful to reflect on the past 20 years, the next 20 years must now become priority number one for Project Ploughshares. In many ways, Ploughshares is well-positioned to begin this next segment of its work. It has firmly established its credibility as a research and policy development organization and has built up a substantial and unique body of knowledge concerning security issues in general and Canadian security requirements in particular. It has built solid working relationships with the NGO community and actively contributes to discussions on security issues both from an understanding of the broad requirements of human security as well as from Ploughshares' own area of expertise - demilitarization. It has developed solid and receptive contacts within government departments and with political party caucuses. And it has become an information resource of choice by the media when military issues become hot news items.

These strengths are critically important resources as Ploughshares tackles a research and policy development agenda that today includes:

* military expenditures that remain high while human development funding is being cut;

* increasing Canadian military exports to the Third World;

* the need for effective peacebuilding strategies in regions of conflict; and

* ongoing landmine and nuclear weapons abolition work.

Advocating new policy alternatives within and across the NGO and government worlds will be required to move the demilitarization agenda forward in the years to come, and the recognition that Project Ploughshares has gained during the past 20 years will allow it to play a key facilitation role in this effort.

Ploughshares must also reach out effectively to the Canadian public. In this respect Ploughshares starts its next 20 years from a strong position - an established support base of thousands of Canadians who are concerned about the issues on the disarmament agenda. Local Ploughshares groups remain an important community contact channel but have decreased in number since the height of the Cold War in the mid-1980s. The challenge now is to add new communication channels, such as the recently created World Wide Web homepage, which will give supporters additional opportunities for joining the struggle against militarization. (13) (Activity statistics indicate that 10-15 people stroll through the WWW "electronic front door" each day, many of whom are new to the organization.) With the growth of freenets and home computers across Canada, electronic communication and information sharing systems are becoming increasingly accessible.

The strategy of engaging all parties in a demilitarization dialogue figures prominently in Ploughshares' plans for a 20th anniversary conference in October 1996. At this conference, and in the years to come, Ploughshares will continue interacting with Canadian non-governmental organizations, academics, government officials, and parliamentarians, as well as its contacts abroad, to explore and promote a realistic agenda for global demilitarization and the redirecting of resources towards human development.

(1) Murray Thomson and Ernie Regehr, A Time to DISARM, Montreal, Harvest House Ltd., 1978.

(2) Ernie Regehr, The utilization of resources for military purposes in Canada and the impact on Canadian industrialization and defence procurement, A report prepared for the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts on the Relationship between Disarmament and Development, Waterloo, Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, 1980.

(3) Ernie Regehr and Simon Rosenblum, editors, Canada and the Nuclear Arms Race, Toronto, James Lorimer, 1983.

(4) Ernie Regehr, Militarism and the World Military Order: a Study Guide for Churches, Geneva, World Council of Churches, 1980.

(5) For a current example of this reporting, see Ken Epps, "A record year for Team Canada: Canadian arms sales to the Third World," Ploughshares Monitor, September 1995, Vol.XVI,No.3, pp. 1, 3-7.

(6) For a current example of this reporting, see Ken Epps, "Bit player in the arms market: Indirect Canadian military trade in 1993," Ploughshares Monitor, December 1994, Vol.XV,No.4, pp. 12-14.

(7) For an historical analysis of military spending since 1980, and a comparison with Canada's Official Development Assistance budgets, see Bill Robinson, "Putting our money where our mouth is? Security spending and security policy," Ploughshares Briefing, February 1996,No. 96/1,8 pages.

(8) Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Canada in the World, 1995,p.25.

(9) Armed Conflicts Report 1995, Project Ploughshares, 1995, 24 pages. (The 1996 report is due in May, 1996.)

(10) Building Peace: New Challenges for Canada's Foreign and Defence Policies, Ploughshares Working Paper 93-4, 1994, 13 pages. (This working paper is in part reproduced in a paper by Ernie Regehr entitled "Redefining the role of the military: Towards a war termination strategy" published in Ploughshares

Monitor, March 1994, Vol.XV, No.1, pp.3-6.)

(11) Ernie Regehr, "The challenge of peacebuilding: Rebuilding peace in war-torn and war-threatened societies," Ploughshares Monitor, December 1995, Vol.XVI, No.4, pp.1,3-8.

(12) The International Resource Group on Disarmament and Security, IRG Program Report 1993 - 1995, February 1996, 22 pages.

(13) Project Ploughshares welcomes visitors to its World Wide Web site at: http://watserv1.uwaterloo.ca/~plough/.