Disarmament Disarmament is the act of reducing , limiting , or abolishing weapons . Disarmament generally refers to a country ' s military or specific type of weaponry . Disarmament is often taken to mean total elimination of weapons of mass destruction , such as nuclear arms . General and Complete Disarmament refers to the removal of all weaponry , including conventional arms . Definitions of disarmament . Disarmament can be contrasted with arms control , which essentially refers to the act of " limiting " arms rather than eliminating them . A distinction can also be made between disarmament as a process ( the process of eliminating weapons ) , and disarmament as an end state ( the absence of weapons ) . Disarmament has also come to be associated with two things : Philosophically , disarmament may be viewed as a form of demilitarization ; part of an economic , political , technical , and military process to reduce and eliminate weapons systems . Thus , disarmament may be part of a set of other strategies , like economic conversion , which aim to reduce the power of war making institutions and associated constituencies . History . An example on the feasibility of the elimination of weapons is the policy of gradual reduction of guns in Japan during the Tokugawa shogunate . In two centuries , Japan passed from being the country with more guns per capita to producing ( or importing ) none . In the early 1930s , US President Franklin D . Roosevelt sent this message to the World Disarmament Conference : " If all nations will agree wholly to eliminate from possession and use the weapons which make possible a successful attack , defences automatically will become impregnable and the frontiers and independence of every nation will become secure . " In 1961 , US President John F . Kennedy gave a speech before the UN General Assembly where he announced the US " intention to challenge the Soviet Union , not to an arms race , but to a peace race - to advance together step by step , stage by stage , until general and complete disarmament has been achieved . " He went on to call for a global general and complete disarmament , offering a rough outline for how this could be accomplished : Nuclear disarmament . Nuclear disarmament refers to both the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons and to the end state of a nuclear - free world , in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated . Proponents of nuclear disarmament say that it would lessen the probability of nuclear war occurring , especially accidentally . Critics of nuclear disarmament say that it would undermine deterrence . Major nuclear disarmament groups include Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament , Greenpeace and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War . There have been many large anti - nuclear demonstrations and protest s . On June 12 , 1982 , one million people demonstrated in New York City ' s Central Park against nuclear weapons and for an end to the cold war arms race . It was the largest anti - nuclear protest and the largest political demonstration in American history . Definitions of disarmament . In his definition of " disarmament " , David Carlton writes in the Oxford University Press Political dictionary , " But confidence in such measures of arms control , especially when unaccompanied by extensive means of verification , has not been strengthened by the revelation that the Soviet Union in its last years successfully concealed consistent and systematic cheating on its obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention . " He also notes , " Now a freeze or a mutually agreed increase is not strictly speaking disarmament at all . And such measures may not even be intended to be a first step towards any kind of reduction or abolition . For the aim may simply be to promote stability in force structures . Hence a new term to cover such cases has become fashionable since the 1960s , namely , arms control . " The book by Seymour Melman , " Inspection for Disarmament " , addresses various problems related to the problem of inspection for disarmament , evasion teams , and capabilities and limitations of aerial inspection . Gradually , as the idea of arms control displaced the idea of disarmament , the weaknesses of the present arms control paradigm have created problems for the idea of disarmament itself . References and footnotes . Specific references : General references :