ABSTRACT
The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which should be signed in 1991, will reduce the strategic offense delivery systems of the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The reductions, while less than the advertised 50 percent, are nonetheless significant. Verification is, was, and will be a critical limiting function for the United States of any arms control agreement over important weapons systems. An explicit right of withdrawal, upon giving notice of three or six months, is the norm of the nuclear-age agreements. There are proposals from time to time for radical new approaches to arms control, akin to fundamental amendments to the United States Constitution, such as changing from a separation of powers approach to a parliamentary system. Arms control treaties that deal with changing technology require adaptation over time. US Senator Sam Nunn has observed that our task remains awesome in that "we must reverse the record of history.".
