Strategic arms limitation
Since 1969, the focus of the Soviet-American arms control process has been on limiting the numbers and sizes of both defensive and offensive strategic systems. The format for this effort has been the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT) and more recently the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START). Both sides came to these negotiations convinced that nuclear arsenals had grown so large that some form of mutual restraint was needed. Although the SALT/START process has been slow and ponderous, it has produced several concrete agreements and collateral benefits. The 1972 ABM Treaty restricts the deployment of ballistic missile defense systems, the 1972 Interim Agreement places a quantitative freeze on each side's land based and sea based strategic launchers, and the as yet unratified 1979 SALT II Treaty sets numerical limits on all offensive strategic systems and sublimits on MIRVed systems. Collateral benefits include improved verification procedures, working definitions and counting rules, and permanent bureaucratic apparatus that enhance stability and increase the chances for achieving additional agreements.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of California, San Diego, La Jolla
- OSTI ID:
- 6100541
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-830463-
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conf. Proc.; (United States), Vol. 104; Conference: American Physical Society spring meeting, Balitmore, MD, USA, 18 Apr 1983
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY
BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE
BILATERAL AGREEMENTS
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
LAUNCHING
MISSILES
AGREEMENTS
INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS
NATIONAL DEFENSE
TREATIES
WEAPONS
450202* - Explosions & Explosives- Nuclear- Weaponry- (-1989)
290600 - Energy Planning & Policy- Nuclear Energy