ABSTRACT
The concept of crisis stability was developed largely in relation to strategic arms the long-range nuclear weapons with which the superpowers threaten each other's homeland. This came in 1972 with the ABM treaty, which is now considered the most important achievement of modern arms control, in that it addressed the original concern about crisis stability. President Reagan has even offered to transfer some of the relevant technology to the Soviet Union, once it has been developed. Nor does this philosophy promise to set the terms for strategic arms control over the long term. The proposed new defences would not be ready until the next century. We have noted that traditional arms control theory has little to say about the desirable numerical level at which a nuclear balance can be sustained, while recent arms control practice has been preoccupied with achieving parity.
