ABSTRACT
Since the end of World War II, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union and—subsequently—Russia have been one of the major factors defining the global security environment. This chapter explores the impact of narratives on the successes and failures of arms control from the second part of the 1980s until the 2020s. Usually, an arms control-facilitating narrative has been one of weapons becoming gratuitous in a situation short of imminent security threats and under perceived stability of intentions of the main players. The importance of narratives for the cause of arms control was evident to the Soviet Communist Party Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev as he was looking for ways to achieve a breakthrough in arms control negotiations between Moscow and Washington.
