From Gemini.
Question 1 : « Non militarization and countries without armies, C. Barbey »
(Sorry for the « self-test », daring to stay humble").
Answer :
The research on « non-militarization and countries without armies » led by Swiss jurist and peace researcher **Christophe Barbey** (notably through *APRED* and his working paper for the Åland Islands Peace Institute) provides one of the most comprehensive frameworks for identifying, defining, and understanding states operating without standing militaries.

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1. Core Framework & Definitions

Barbey’s research distinguishes between different levels of demilitarization, emphasizing that the absence of a standing army is not a uniform state, but a continuum ranging from absolute non-militarization to reliance on police or regional security networks.

• **Non-militarization :** The state policy or structural condition of deliberately existing without a military apparatus or choosing not to build one.
• **Demilitarization :** The active process of abolishing existing armed forces (e.g., Costa Rica in 1948, Panama in 1990).
• **Countries without armies :** Sovereign states that maintain no permanent, conventional military forces under constitutional, statutory, or customary arrangements.

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2. Key Criteria for Identification

To classify a nation state as a « country without an army, » Barbey evaluates several institutional and legal thresholds :

1. **Absence of a Standing Military :** No regular army, navy, or air force under military command structures or defense ministries.
2. **Police vs. Paramilitary Scope :** Law enforcement agencies (e.g., national police, coast guard) maintain strict civil/internal security functions rather than external heavy-warfare capabilities.
3. **Legal Foundations :** Clear constitutional prohibitions against standing armies (e.g., Article 12 of Costa Rica’s Constitution) or legislative decisions establishing permanent non-militarization.
4. **Autonomous Sovereignty :** The state remains an independent, recognized sovereign entity (excluding non-sovereign overseas territories or dependencies).

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3. Typology of Armyless States

Based on Barbey’s systematic monitoring, the approximately 20 to 25 sovereign states operating without traditional armed forces generally fall into three main categories :

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4. Key Findings & Strategic Mechanisms

Barbey’s work highlights several mechanisms that allow non-militarized states to maintain national security without a domestic military force :

• **Guaranteed External Defense Agreements :** Many non-militarized nations rely on formal bilateral treaties, free association agreements, or defense guarantees with larger powers (e.g., the Compact of Free Association between the US and Pacific Island nations ; the Regional Security System in the Caribbean ; informal arrangements for Liechtenstein with Switzerland/Austria).
• **Constitutional Protections & Soft Power :** Institutionalizing non-militarization in national constitutions fosters strong democratic norms, freeing up budget allocations for social infrastructure, health, and education.
• **Multilateral Diplomacy & International Law :** Armyless states lean heavily on multilateral frameworks, international arbitration, human rights systems, and collective security bodies (such as the UN or OAS) as primary lines of defense.

Question 2 : Main citations of this work ?
Answer : The core publications and key citations for Christophe Barbey’s foundational work on non-militarization and army-less states include :

## Primary Works by Christophe Barbey

• **Working Paper (Most widely cited standard text) :**
  Barbey, C. (2015). *Non-militarisation : Countries without Armies. Identification Criteria and First Findings*. Åland Islands Peace Institute Working Papers. The Åland Islands Peace Institute.
• **Monograph (Original foundational study) :** (There was a non-scientific pre-attempt at the topic in 1989)
  Barbey, C. (2001). *La non-militarisation et les pays sans armée : une réalité*. APRED / Pour de vrai. ISBN 2-88322-006-9.
• **Book Chapter :**
  Barbey, C. (2012). Non-militarisation : Peace Policies and Demilitarisation. In *Nonkilling Security and the State*. Center for Global Nonkilling.

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## Major Academic Works Citing Barbey’s Framework

Barbey’s typologies and criteria form the reference baseline across peace studies, political science, and comparative politics whenever demilitarized states are examined :

• **Comparative Politics & Security Literature :**
  Zoltan Barany’s *States without Armies : Why They Exist and How They Survive* (Oxford University Press, 2026) draws extensively on Barbey’s 2015 dataset and legal criteria to analyze the 21 sovereign nations without traditional armed forces.
• **International Reference Resources :**
  Barbey’s structural definition of an army-less state directly informs the analytical criteria used by global reference tools, including the *Wikipedia* directory on sovereign states without armed forces and regional peace research repositories like *swisspeace / KOFF*.
• **Peace & Human Rights Policy Papers :**
  Cited by multilateral organizations and NGOs (notably within the UN Universal Periodic Review frameworks) to advocate for security sector reform, transition from armies to police forces, and the reallocation of defense spending toward sustainable development goals.

Online : 27.7.26