ABSTRACT
Security can be achieved only through either unilateral moves or deals and compromises that reduce the threats from the outside yet fall far short of replacing the permanent competition with anything like a common code of abstention from force. The concept of common security, as defined by the Independent Commission on Disarmament and Security, tries, on the other hand, to move away from the use of force altogether. A notion of common security is beginning to emerge with respect to the superpowers' nuclear capabilities, because of an awareness of the impossibility of their actually using these weapons for political gains, the meaninglessness of nuclear superiority, and the likelihood that any resort to nuclear weapons will become uncontrollable. The establishment of common security in the realm of nuclear proliferation and of conventional armaments is therefore a formidable task that far exceeds the difficult and limited issue of coping with the weapons themselves.
