ABSTRACT
The scope and dimension of the Bush Administration's Middle East arms control policy cannot be judged unless it is put in the broader context of American interests in the region and past attempts by the US to control the Middle East arms race. During the 1950s, the United States was part of the Tripartite Agreement that restricted and rationed arms to the major countries in the Arab-Israeli dispute. When the Reagan administration came into office, traditional arms control was not high on the agenda. Vice President George Bush launched the Reagan administration's chemical weapons initiative in a speech in Geneva in 1984. The Bush administration outlined a four-pillar post-war Gulf policy that included arms control as a component of Middle East policy. In his March 6, 1991 speech to Congress, President Bush stressed the determination of the administration to produce an arms control agenda.
