ABSTRACT
In his account of the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT) I negotiations, Gerard Smith pauses for a brief review of the interesting parallels between SALT and the Washington Naval Conference of 1921-1922. To start with, the "arms" in arms control are much more than weapons. "Arms" is shorthand for the panoply of resources and arrangements by which weapons come into existence, are maintained and deployed, and are used. There are a good many measures that governments can adopt under the heading of arms control and they vary considerably in complexity, difficulty, and effects. One complication arises because arms control measures can be designed to achieve any number of objectives. A theory should attempt to lay out the connection between arms control and international politics, for it is international politics that constitutes the environment within which arming occurs and, therefore, within which arms control arises and is carried on.
