not all demilitarization is equally desirable eg. the consequences of Costa Rica’s demilitarization were vastly different from those of Germany’s following World War I. Demilitarization has large potential benefits to both scholarship and policymaking. For centuries security has been defined as “national security” – which essentially has meant assuring the security of those in power and the apparatus of the state. Defending the state requires military power based on nationalism and patriotism. What's the poiint of demilitarization? I guess it's about creating a world based on human security not national security. What is the sense that with the current global economic shake-down, countries still managed to find billions of dollars for weapons and the military while at the same time they are cutting funds for education, health care, job training, social services –the elements of daily life that are the basis of human security.

This issue could be approached from different angles; one possible approach could be through  gender balance where the  assumption is that by engaging more women in peacekeeping missions more balance is expected to prevail, but the remark on this point is to the effect that this approach counts more on numerical rather than qualitative engagement of women in this activity. the other possible approach could be through mainstreaming gender implying the idea that the very participation of women in peace processes is itself a positive investment in feminity, giving a sense that women are by their very nature more peaceful than men.

It depends largely on your context, but another angle may be, as a starting point, to reference the Copenhagen School, its bias toward descuritization and also Stritzel's and Balzacq's critiques of the theory. 

depends on the type of demilitarization you are talking about. the military uses the term demilitarization to describe the technical process of dismantling a weapon they no longer need or which has been banned by a treaty or which is too old to be safely handled.

national demilitarization can be voluntary or involuntary, as referred by Jessica. defeated countries will be demilitarized by the victor, however some countries have voluntarily gone through the process of abolishing their formal armed forces

social demilitarization aims at uprooting widespread militarist thinking from society which supports social military preparation for a war. counter war propaganda is only a part of that.

Thanks Samer. I am actually exploring an appropriate framework to study DDR in Nigeria. Like you said, the neoliberal framework, focusssed explicitly on economic determinism, seems to dominate the demilitarization discourse.

"Tell me what is your militarization and I'll tell you what is your demilitarization". As far as the latter is understood as withdraw of the former, one has to begin with theories of militarization. However, I am more familiar with studies of militarization that employ various disciplinary approaches (e.g., sociological, psychological, educational, etc.) than any 'militarization theory' per se. I would suggest to look on the works of Kimmergling, Ben Ari, Ben-Eliezer and others on Israel for useful clues. In addition, 'militarization/de-militarization' is much less IR subject than comparative politics and moreover civil-military relations (i.e., Armed Forces & Society issues...).

A broad conceptual and practical literature about de-militarization could be found in the literature of peacekeeping and stabilization operations, Begin with the web of DPKO and then turn to the Journal of Peacekeeping Operations.

hi! i think constructivist theories can help to understanding  the process of demilitarization. some thing that is important here is the form of constructing this process as an understandable and meaningful for agent identity. the role of discourse and language is crucial one!

Thanks Khani. I never thought of the constructivist framework. I love the discourse analysis. 

try Security Sector Reform approach. More academic, though, will be the theory/ies of civil-military relations, starting from Huntington

demilitarization refers to security regimes and peacekeeping operations. in the first case it is an objective more than a tool where in the second case it is a tool more than objection, although in both cases it is a tool and objective as well, but the priorities are different.

i suggest you begining with peacekeeping operations and the DPKO web might be a good begining.

good luck

Hi Obasesam, if you are looking at DDR in Nigeria you may wish to examine the literature on "civil militarism". Specifically I believe it would be helpful to you to examine  Jeffery Isima's thesis comparing civil militarism in SA and Nigeria. If you haven't seen it yet, feel free to contact me offline.

Also Nat J. Coletta and Robert Muggah, Rethinking Postwar Security Promotion, Journal of Security Sector Management, Vol 7, No 1, 2009. Lots of different thinking about how to do DDR. Plus Small Arms Survey may have some interesting articles.

Good luck!

Collins, thanks for your contribution. Please feel free to send me the article by Jeffrey. Cheers!