Transarmament is the partial or total replacement of armed forces

Armed forces

The armed forces of a country are its government-sponsored defense, fighting forces, and organizations. They exist to further the foreign and domestic policies of their governing body, and to defend that body and the nation it represents from external aggressors. In some countries paramilitary...

 with the physical and social infrastructure to support nonviolent

Nonviolence

Nonviolence has two meanings. It can refer, first, to a general philosophy of abstention from violence because of moral or religious principle It can refer to the behaviour of people using nonviolent action Nonviolence has two (closely related) meanings. (1) It can refer, first, to a general...

 resistance. According to an encyclopedia definition, transarmament is

the process of changeover from a military-based defense policy to a civilian-based defense

Civilian-based defense

Civilian-based defense, according to Professor Gene Sharp, a scholar of non-violent struggle, is a “policy [in which] the whole population and the society’s institutions become the fighting forces. Their weaponry consists of a vast variety of forms of psychological, economic, social, and political...

 policy. Transarmament always involves the replacement of one means to provide defense with another. It therefore differs from "disarmament," which is the simple reduction or abandonment of military capacity. (p 534)

The term "transarmament" appears to have been introduced in 1937 in a pamphlet by Kenneth Boulding. It appears not to have been used again until the 1960s. Since that time it has also been used as a technical term in professional journals - for example, by Johan Galtung

Johan Galtung

Johan Galtung is a Norwegian sociologist and the principal founder of the discipline of peace and conflict studies. He founded the Peace Research Institute Oslo in 1959, serving as its Director until 1970, and established the Journal of Peace Research in 1964...

.

According to Adam Roberts,

At least four possible stages [of transarmament] can be envisaged:

1. Research and investigation into civilian defence, in order to judge its workability, relate it to a specific country's defence problems, and develop strategic and tactical concepts so that the proposal can be presented in concrete and practical terms.

2. General public education in non-violent action and civilian defence; concentrated training of key groups and individuals; organizational preparations.

3. Application of civilian defence in specific areas without complete abandonment of military defence policy.

4. Public commitment to use civilian defence in resisting all threats formerly dealt with by military methods. Completion of process of transarment. (p. 338)

See also

• Making Europe Unconquerable: The Potential of Civilian-Based Deterrence and Defence
  Making Europe Unconquerable
  Making Europe Unconquerable is a book about how civilian-based defense can be incorporated into the foundations of European defense and collective security. Written by Gene Sharp, the book was originally published in the UK and US in 1985. Its subtitle was the potential of civilian-based deterrence...
  
  

External links

• http://www.fragmentsweb.org/stuff/nvwar.html
• Civilian-Based Defense: A Post-Military Weapons System by Gene Sharp
• National Security through Civilian-Based Defense by Gene Sharp