Departing from UNESCO disarmament education guidelines, a conceptual framework is presented in which disarmament is seen in relation to the overall question of peace, which also includes problems of development and human rights. The need for disarmament is based on arguments related not only to disarmament "per se", but also to the need for development and the realization of human rights. As a consequence, the violence and causes of militarism are seen not only in the perspective of direct violence, but also in the perspective of structural violence. Thus, the violence and causes of militarism include the problems of development and human rights at all levels. In addition to these two components, it is argued that the need for disarmament must also be determined in relation to its opposite, namely visions of disarmament and the transformation process at all levels towards such visions. Thus, the substance to be dealt with in disarmament education needs to be related to all of these major components. It should not be surprising that a group of seven experts in a UNESCO disarmament education project in the bipolar world of the 1980s had some difficulty in agreeing on all the controversial issues discussed within the conceptual perspectives outlined above. It may be more of a surprise that the expert group agreed on being explicit about both agreements and disagreements. (Contains 1 figure, 1 table and 14 notes.)