ABSTRACT
The end of the Cold War, new possibilities has opened up for addressing the threat posed by the world's nuclear arsenals. Progress in this direction has been made with the completion of the START-I and START-II treaties, which will reduce US and Russian strategic nuclear warheads by two-thirds from current levels. In addition, reducing US and Russian forces to minimum deterrence levels of some hundreds of weapons may require constraints on the development of offensive and defensive military technologies. Any prospect of moving away from a reliance on mutual nuclear deterrence towards mutual nuclear reassurance will most certainly depend on a high degree of transparency and strict and verifiable limitations on certain types of military development. In short, nuclear Confidence-Building Measures (CBMs) and development restrictions will become an increasingly important element on the nuclear arms control agenda. Nuclear CBMs and restrictions on military development could have a role to play in effecting such a transition.
