ABSTRACT
The progressive move toward the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in 1990-1991 was influenced by many disparate forces. One of the acute issues is the future of the START Treaty. It is the only existing Treaty on reduction and limitation of strategic-offensive arms, which has a chance to acquire full legal force in the foreseeable future. The main rationale behind the partial curtailment of new US programs was economic; the Americans were concerned primarily with reducing the federal budget deficit. During 1990-1991 the modernization of strategic forces seemed to slow down for a number of interdependent economic, political, and arms control reasons. Given the traditional decision-making processes in both capitals and at the Geneva negotiations, progress could have been guaranteed only by impulses coming from Soviet-American summits or meetings of foreign ministers. The high-level negotiations also made progress constructing a verification system for determining the number of mobile land-based ICBMs deployed.
