Arms control is the limiting, regulating, reducing, or eliminating of a nation’s armed forces and weapons. Most arms-control agreements are treaties approved by many nations.
Arms-control proposals have ranged from general and complete disarmament to forms of limited arms control. General and complete disarmament would allow nations to keep only those weapons and forces necessary to provide police services and support international peacekeeping units. Limited arms-control measures call for restrictions on the testing, production, distribution, or possession of certain types of weapons. The restrictions may ban the weapons entirely or only forbid their presence in certain areas. Nations may also limit or ban the distribution of equipment or scientific information that can be used to produce certain kinds of weapons. Some limited arms-control agreements have been approved.
Working out an arms-control agreement is a difficult process, especially if relations between the negotiating countries are unstable. Countries negotiating an agreement may be critical and suspicious of each other and therefore may tend to disagree over proposals. In addition, it is often hard to compare the military strength of powerful nations because of differences in the types and numbers of weapons. The combined strength of allied nations also makes comparisons difficult.
The current arms-control debate
The argument for arms control.
Today, many nations have the ability to make weapons of mass destruction—that is, chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. The existence of such weapons has helped encourage support for arms control. People who favor arms control use the following arguments:
The overwhelming power of modern weapons exceeds any reasonable purpose. Today, one submarine can carry missiles and nuclear warheads that contain more destructive power than all the weapons used during World War II (1939-1945). The use of all existing nuclear warheads in an attack would almost certainly destroy the countries attacked. Similarly, the use of chemical or biological weapons against troops or civilian populations would cause large numbers of deaths.
The threat to use such weapons against a country might itself cause a war. A threatened country might question its ability to survive an attack. As a result, it might strike first if it feared that it was about to be attacked. Arms control is intended to reduce such fears.
Arms control reduces the need for countries to acquire nuclear weapons or increase their supply of other weapons. Arms control thus eases world tension and limits other conditions that might lead to nuclear war.
The argument against arms control.
Some nations want to build or acquire sophisticated weapons because they regard them as a symbol of technological achievement, prestige, and modernness. Also, many people feel more secure if their country is militarily strong. Opponents of arms control use the following arguments:
Armed forces and weapons by themselves do not cause international disputes or tension. They merely reflect political, economic, and other disputes, which must be settled before nations can agree on arms control.
Arms-control agreements between an open, free society and a secret, authoritarian society are risky. The authoritarian nation often will not permit adequate inspection to assure that it is keeping its part of the agreement.
Arms control may damage a nation’s military defense. Agreements may call for the destruction of some needed weapons and may also prevent the replacement or improvement of other necessary weapons systems.
History of arms control
Early efforts in arms control.
Until the 1900’s, there were only a few limited arms-control agreements. One was the Rush-Bagot Agreement of 1817 between the United States and the United Kingdom. This agreement limited each nation’s armed forces along the Great Lakes. The peace treaty signed after World War I (1914-1918) disarmed Germany and limited the size of its army. In 1922, the Washington Conference led to an arms-control agreement among France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These nations agreed to destroy some of their battleships and ban construction of others for 10 years. At the London Naval Conference in 1930, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States consented to limit the size and guns of their cruisers, destroyers, and submarines. This agreement lasted until 1936.
Arms control in the mid-1900’s.
Agreements at the end of World War II (1939-1945) provided for the disarmament of Germany and Japan. After the war, the United Nations (UN) tried to obtain an agreement limiting arms for all nations.
In 1952, a 12-nation Disarmament Commission set up by the UN General Assembly began to meet. In 1959, it took in all UN members. In 1961, a treaty to keep Antarctica free of military weapons took effect. In 1963, the Limited Test Ban Treaty was ratified (formally approved) by the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom. It prohibited testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, in space, or underwater. A treaty often called the Outer Space Treaty, which took effect in 1967, limited military activity in space. That same year, 21 Latin American states signed the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which banned nuclear weapons in Latin America. Today, most Latin American countries participate in the treaty. In 1968, the UN approved the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which prohibited countries from giving nuclear weapons to other nations. It took effect in 1970.
Several more UN arms-control treaties won approval during the early 1970’s. The Seabed Arms Control Treaty, which took effect in 1972, prohibited countries from putting nuclear weapons on the ocean floor more than 12 nautical miles (23 kilometers) from their coastlines. The Biological Weapons Convention, a UN treaty signed in 1972, banned the production and stockpiling of biological weapons. It went into effect in 1975.
Meetings between the Soviet Union and the United States to discuss the possibility of limiting strategic (long-range offensive) nuclear weapons led to two agreements in 1972. The first agreement, called the ABM (antiballistic missile) Treaty, limited each nation’s defensive missile systems. The other agreement restricted U.S. and Soviet production of certain kinds of offensive nuclear weapons. Both agreements went into force in 1972. The United States withdrew from the ABM Treaty in 2002. See Strategic Arms Limitation Talks .
Arms control in the late 1900’s and early 2000’s.
Beginning in the late 1980’s, improved U.S-Soviet relations led to a number of arms-control agreements. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty between the two nations took effect in 1988. It eliminated all of the two countries’ ground-launched nuclear missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers (310 to 3,420 miles). It also provided for the first inspection procedures on national territory to support verification. But the United States withdrew from the treaty in 2019, after accusing Russia of violating it.
In 1990, members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), including the United States, and countries allied under the Warsaw Pact, including the Soviet Union, signed the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE). The treaty took effect in 1992. It limited the amount of nonnuclear weaponry each country could have. It also provided for inspections of military bases and an exchange of military data. In 2007, Russia “suspended” its participation in the treaty, an action not provided for under the treaty.
In July 1991, U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). This treaty, now known as START I, was designed to reduce U.S. and Soviet long-range nuclear missiles and bombers by about a third. Final approval of the treaty required legislative ratification by both countries. Later in 1991, the United States and the Soviet Union stated that they would destroy many of their short-range nuclear weapons.
The future of START I and many other arms-control agreements became uncertain when the Soviet Union broke apart in late 1991. This event raised questions about who would be responsible for ratifying and carrying out agreements entered into by the Soviet Union. In 1992, officials of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine—the four former Soviet states that possessed nuclear weapons—signed an agreement upholding START I. The agreement also committed Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine to eliminating their nuclear weapons. The United States and the four former Soviet states ratified the agreement, which took effect in 1994.
In 1993, Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed START II, a treaty to supplement START I. START II called for cutting the number of U.S. and formerly Soviet long-range nuclear weapons to less than half the number proposed by START I. However, START II never went into effect, due to disputes over later amendments to the treaty.
Also in 1993, more than 120 countries signed a UN-sponsored treaty banning the manufacture, use, transfer, and stockpiling of chemical weapons. The treaty took effect in 1997.
In 1996, the UN approved the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, designed to end the testing of nuclear weapons. To go into effect, the pact must be ratified by all countries with nuclear reactors (devices for producing nuclear energy). Three of these countries—India, Pakistan, and North Korea—have not signed or ratified the treaty. Several others, including the United States and Russia, have not ratified the treaty or have revoked their earlier ratification of it. Nevertheless, experts expect that countries that have approved the treaty will abide by it, even though it has not gone into effect.
Since 1997, more than 160 countries have signed a treaty banning the use of land mines that are designed to kill or injure soldiers. The treaty, which went into effect in 1999, was adopted especially to eliminate civilian deaths and injuries caused by mines. However, some countries consider the devices to be important defensive weapons and refuse to sign the treaty.
In 2002, U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty to reduce the U.S. and Russian nuclear forces by about two-thirds over 10 years. The agreement, commonly known as the Treaty of Moscow, took effect in 2003.
The START I agreement expired in 2009. In 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama signed the New START treaty, which aimed to reduce long-range nuclear weapons by 30 percent over seven years. The New START treaty took effect in 2011, after the U.S. Senate and the Russian parliament ratified it. However, in 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia was suspending its participation in New START.
In 2013, the UN General Assembly adopted the landmark Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). The treaty aims to regulate international trade in conventional arms by stemming their flow to conflict zones. Conventional arms range from small arms to battle tanks, combat aircraft, and warships. The treaty seeks to keep such weapons away from human rights abusers, gangs, pirates, and warlords. It went into effect in 2014, after being ratified by more than 50 UN member nations.
