ABSTRACT

Since the early 1960s arms control negotiations have occupied a large and growing proportion of the political relations between United States and Soviet Union. Negotiations are nothing more than formal communication, and it is not usual to think in terms of the opportunity costs of communication. This chapter reviews three arms control negotiations: Strategic Arms Limitation Talks I, Strategic Arms Limitation Talks II, and the negotiations on nuclear and space-based weapons conducted during the Reagan Administration. It also reviews incentives leading the parties to negotiate their foreign and defense policy objectives, and the results of the negotiations. The chapter examines in greater detail the impact of arms control negotiations on capacity for crisis management between the United States and the Soviet Union. In the early development of nuclear arsenals, crisis stability came to be identified as crucial issue of strategic planning, and early analyses of this problem pointed out the danger of relying on vulnerable, forward-based bomber fleets for nuclear deterrence.