A Future Arms Control Agenda

Organized by SIPRI, the Nobel Symposium on A Future Arms Control Agenda considered how arms control contributes to a cooperative security system based on the peaceful resolution of disputes and the gradual demilitarization of international relations. This book documents the proceedings, including comprehensive discussions of new elements of the post-Cold War global security system and objectives and limitations of arms control within that evolving system. Special attention is given to the changing roles and responsibilities of the major powers in arms control efforts.

Rethinking the Unthinkable examines the future direction of nuclear arms control in the post-Cold War security environment. Believing that the new environment requires a radical rethinking of the purpose and role of nuclear weapons in international politics, the contributors address many fundamental issues influencing further US, Russian and European nuclear arms reductions. This volume is a product of the Project on Rethinking Arms Control, sponsored by the Center for International and Security Studies in Maryland.

The Secretary-General announced on 24 May 2018 his Agenda for Disarmament, which outlines a set of practical measures across the entire range of disarmament issues, including weapons of mass destruction, conventional arms and future weapon technologies. It seeks to generate fresh perspectives and to explore areas where serious dialogue is required to bring disarmament back to the heart of our common efforts for peace and security.

Since the end of the cold war, the end of the post-cold war period and the beginning of the new century, there has been a constant search for a new approach to disarmament and arms control. This publication makes available the papers that were presented at a panel discussion in May 2000.--Publisher's description.

The political dimension of arms control has always had special significance for the Federal Republic of Germany, not only because of the issue of a divided Germany and a partitioned Europe but also because of the country's key position in the Western security alliance. In the wake of NATO's recent decision to deploy more nuclear weapons on German soil, and in the absence of progress on arms control, it has become clear that arms control measures and negotiations have assumed an importance far beyond their military-technical components; fundamental questions about the nature of East-West relations and the future shape of the transatlantic alliance and the European political order also have been raised. These essays explore the implications of arms control negotiations for the Federal Republic of Germany and consider why Germany has traditionally found it impossible to divorce considerations of arms control from their larger political context.