ABSTRACT
Arms control measures clearly cannot remove the motives for acquiring arms, but they may help to minimize the risk of war started by accident or miscalculation, or even by design. Another important function of arms control agreements is to reduce suspicion and contribute to better understanding among nations. Unilateral arms control measures would certainly be feasible in the rare cases in which states do not perceive a military threat and can therefore take unilateral action without requiring reciprocity. The 1979 Strategic Arms Limitation Talks II agreements contain serious shortcomings, mainly because the strategic nuclear fire-power of both sides was allowed to increase in spite of the agreed limitations. Europe could be a suitable first candidate for a chemical weapon-free zone arrangement. It is in Europe that there is widespread concern that, in addition to the existing stocks of ‘conventional’ chemical weapons, new, so-called binary nerve gas munitions may soon be deployed.
