SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY <p>
FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF PEACE<p>
2 - 5 October 1996<p>
Como, Italy<p>
<p>

The end of the Cold War, combined with enormous fiscal pressure on national 
budgets, has led to widespread and ongoing reduction in military expenditures 
around the world. Conversion of human, material and financial resources from 
military to civilian use would essentially enhance socio-economic progress 
in countries concerned and shift from a culture of war and violence to 
"a culture of peace".
<p>
At the same time, the challenges of global environmental change had led the 
world community to adopt the new paradigm of "sustainable development". 
Sustainable development has broadened the traditional understanding of 
security: global environmental change as the main destabilizing effect is 
also perceived as a vital risk to nations. In addition, environmental and 
security concerns are often blocking the dismantlement of nuclear weapons or 
their transport or the managing and disposal of very large amounts of fissile 
nuclear materials.
<p>
The question of how to respond to the need to transform large-scale 
scientific, technological and industrial capacities designed to serve the 
military-industrial complex by redirecting them towards environmental 
protection and, at the same time, stimulating the real growth of the 
developing nations has increasingly become part of the discussion of a 
possible "peace dividend".
<p>
The meeting of Como 2-5 october 1996, organized by the Landau Network 
Coordination Centre (LNCC) at the Centre of Scientific Culture "A.Volta" 
(Centro Volta), under the auspices of the Regional Office of UNESCO, the 
Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Italian Ministry of University and 
Scientific Research, Lombardia Region and the Municipality of Como, has 
begun by addressing these questions. The meeting of Como is the first of a 
series of working group panels, forum and international Conferences planned 
for the next four years in the frame of a national based LNCC-UNESCO Peace 
Institute at Centro Volta.
<p>
The major issues concerning military conversion quoted in the Como meeting 
are:
<ul>
<li> socio-economic implications of military-industrial technology conversion: 
  country studies
<li> public/private partnership in the military conversion process: guidelines
<li> non-nuclear (defense) conversion of the nuclear military apparatus: 
<li> management of the scientific-technological nuclear military know-how
<li> waste from nuclear reactors and excess fissile materials from dismantled 
  weapons: strategy, policy, management and control 
<li> decontamination, decommissioning and environmental clean-up of the areas of 
  intensive military nuclear activities: case studies
<li> retraining to civilian purposes of the high specialized scientists and 
  technicians working in the military-industrial apparatus
<li> international, policy and legal issues 
</ul>
The working group panel associated to the meeting of Como has developed a 
new strategy concerning the conversion of military science and technology 
based on a demand-side approach.
<p>
One stands from the needs that are not covered by the existing markets, but 
that are connected with the long-term goals for society. These long-terms 
goals are channeled by the new paradigm of sustainable development and 
environmental security in order to respond to enviromental changes and new 
security threats deriving from that. Such demand area should be identified 
first as new potential markets for science and technology capacities 
currently devoted to military applications.
<p>
The future plan of works of the forthcoming LNCC-UNESCO Institute at Centro 
Volta is:
<ul>
<li> Review of attempts to identify science and tchnology and their sense for 
   civilian application compatible to basic needs and demands. 
   Appropriate science and technology capacities should be identified next as 
   possible contribution for development.
<li> Review of what has been done and what is going on on national and 
   international basis.
   Case studies in several areas/countries.
<li> Conclusions and recommendations (lessons that can be learned from the case 
   studies).
<li> Proposals for policy-making and decision-making.
</ul>
As an output: structural programmes ("Handbook for sustainable conversion").

<p>From an organizational point of view, the LNCC-UNESCO Institute at Centro 
Volta plans to organize an international and interdisciplinary group of 
well-known experts and scientists devoted to address this problem. 
The working group will be managed by the LNCC and by the Regional Office 
of UNESCO with the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 
the Italian Ministry of University and Scientific Research, Lombardia 
Region and Municipality of Como.
<p>
The Meeting of Como has presented several original issues in the frame 
of military conversion.
<ul>
<li> Prof Farinelli and Prof. Ponomarev-Stepnoi said that the last LNCC 
  conference on the "Utilization-Disposal of the Excess Fissile Materials", 
  which was addressed to the meeting of the G7 + Russia on Nuclear Security 
  (Moscow, 18-20 April 1996), has contributed to the understanding of the 
  subject and therefore to the conclusions reached by the "G8" meeting. 
  In particular the underlying Como recommendation to choose the MOX/fast 
  reactors option to manage the excess weapon graded plutonium seems to be 
  now accepted by all nuclear countries.
<p><li> Prof. Omeljanovsky has shown several cases of military conversion, but 
  he has advertised that the conversion process will not create the peace 
  dividend in a short time. Therefore private capital investment in 
  conversion projects is needed to introduce market-oriented cost/quality 
  standards to the military sector.
<p><li> Prof. Winkelmann has reported the action of Germany in military conversion 
  management. Closely related to this aspect, acoording to his view, is the 
  environmentally sound disposal of existing military hardware. Such 
  conversion for sustainable development is an exercise where tremendous 
  short-term costs have to be balanced against long-term benefits. In some 
  sense the "peace dividend" must be turned into an "environmental dividend".
<p><li> Prof. Aslanian has reported an interesting case of military conversion 
  related to decommissioning and recycling of Russian nuclear submarines, 
  which are potential sources of both nuclear and radiation hazards. The 
  Russian nuclear submarines to be decommissioned and recycled by 2000 are 
  twice as many as those in the USA and this problem must be solved in spite 
  of the absence of the requisite financial resources and infrastructures in 
  Russia.
<p><li> Dr. Zanner has shown a very interesting initiative of US Department of 
  Energy (DOE) in the spirit of non-proliferation and nuclear security. The 
  DOE mission involves essentially the "closed cities" of the Former Soviet 
  Union and is directed i) to stabilize the technology base in these former 
  nuclear military sites, ii) to involve private sector investment to 
  accomplish non proliferation goals of the US Government.
<p><li> Prof. Cotta Ramusino has stressed that, even by assuming that disposition 
  of excess quantities of weapon's uranium and plutonium proceeds at the 
  maximum planned pace, much of this material will have to be stored for 20 
  years and significant quantities of weapons-useable material will remain in 
  military and civilian use indefinitely thereafter. It is therefore critical 
  that the security of all weapon graded fissile materials be upgraded as 
  rapidly as possible.
<p><li> Prof. Becker has pointed out that a concrete disarmament process must 
	  involve also the chemical and bacteriological weapons and not only the 
  nuclear ones. Unfortunately, at present, there is not any global successful 
  treaty to regulate the dismantlement of the chemical and bacteriological 
  weapons.
<p><li> Prof. Martellini and Dr. Kouzminov have suggested that any concrete and 
  specific initiative for the conversion of military science and technology 
  capacities must be embedded in the frame of a "culture of peace" since 
  only in this way one may garantee a global point of view on the several 
  issues and emergencies posed by the post-Cold War epoch.
</ul>
As stated in the debate of the UNESCO Executive Board when the culture of 
peace programme was first introduced in 1992, a culture of peace is: 
"the transformation of violent competitions into cooperations for shared 
goals".
<p>
Finally Dr. Botta (Municipality of Como), Dr. Boesi (Lombardy Region) and Dr. 
Cravenna (MAE) have expressed the role that Italy, and in particular the City 
of Como and the Lombardy Region, may have in promoting the initiatives for 
the construction of peace and in bringing the conclusions/recommendations 
yearly reached by the LNCC working groups to the level of the European 
Community.