Editing Demilitarisation (section)

{{Short description|Reduction of state armed forces}}
{{war}}
'''Demilitarisation''' or '''demilitarization''' may mean the reduction of state armed forces; it is the opposite of [[militarisation]] in many respects.<ref name="LachenmannWolfrum2017">{{cite book|author1=Frauke Lachenmann|author2=Rüdiger Wolfrum|title=The Law of Armed Conflict and the Use of Force: The Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=boWuDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA327|year=2017|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-878462-3|pages=327–}}</ref> For instance, the demilitarisation of Northern Ireland entailed the reduction of British security and military apparatuses.<ref>{{cite book|title=The State of Loyalism in Northern Ireland|url=https://archive.org/details/stateloyalismnor00spen_484|url-access=limited|last=Spencer|first=Graham|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2008|isbn=978-1-349-54224-6|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/stateloyalismnor00spen_484/page/n160 148]}}</ref> Demilitarisation in this sense is usually the result of a peace treaty ending a war or a major conflict. The principle is distinguished from [[demobilisation]], which refers to the drastic voluntary reduction in the size of a victorious army.