ABSTRACT
In 1960, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences organized two projects to explore the “state of the art” in arms control theory. Although a number of participants took part in both projects and both were conducted in the same general location, the projects were independent. The Cambridge Approach to arms control incorporated basic assumptions about the international system, the nature of politics, and the implications of modern weapons technology. The most salient aspect of the Cambridge Approach was its concentration of effort on the nuclear dilemma. The fearsome qualities of nuclear weapons and faith in man’s ability to reduce international tension through the exercise of reason made international stability the primary concern of the Cambridge Approach to arms control. Decreasing the destructiveness of war was deemed less important—especially when one considered that the avoidance of nuclear war depended upon the perception of its inevitable horror.
