Frank Barnaby

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

Ronald Huisken

The arms race has become a global phenomenon. Each year the world spends a staggering sum on armaments; total military expenditure is almost equal to the entire national income of the poorer half of mankind; aid given underdeveloped countries is a mere 5 percent of money spent for military purposes; resources devoted to medical research are less than a quarter of those devoted to military research and development.

Arms Uncontrolled

"Introduction: The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, signed by US and Soviet representatives on 8 December 1987, was an important and improbable accomplishment. It provided for the complete elimination of a slice of the nuclear weapon delivery capacity of the two superpowers, a characteristic that made it famous within the anti-nuclear movement and provided a new benchmark for the arms control community. In numerical terms, the INF Treaty involved notably asymmetric reductions. The Soviet Union agreed to destroy more than twice as many delivery vehicles (1846) as the United States (846). Although the warheads involved did not have to be destroyed, the imbalance on this index was even more pronounced as all the US systems carried one warhead while the primary Soviet system (the SS-20) carried three. In addition, British and French nuclear forces remained unrestricted, as did long-range nuclear-capable naval cruise missilesan emerging capability in which the United States enjoyed a significant advantage. Finally, the Treatys exclusive focus on land-based systems meant that the Soviet Union had to scrap significant numbers of INF systems that addressed its defence and security interests in theatres other than Europe, without the United States having to make offsetting sacrifices in existing or potential future capabilities. In retrospect, therefore, the fact that the Treaty was concluded and implemented in full may have had a great deal more to do with the Soviet Union coming to terms with the need to step away from trying to maintain a military balance with the West than was apparent at the time. This historic determination by the Soviet leadership under Mikhail Gorbachev was confirmed by the subsequent Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty. Although the formal conclusion of negotiations on this agreement in November 1990 coincided with, and was utterly overshadowed by, the fall of the Berlin Wall, its broad parameters had become clear somewhat earlier. And these parameters involved sharply asymmetric reductions in and redeployments of Soviet and Warsaw Pact conventional forces arrayed along the iron curtain, reflecting, in effect, Moscows concession of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)s core allegation throughout the Cold War that the Soviet Union had accumulated an intimidating preponderance of conventional forces in the European theatre, and that these forces were postured for offensive operations"--Provided by publisher.

Ronald Huisken

About

Books

Join the club