Technology and the Future of Arms Control

Abstract

One great fact of technology — the overwhelming power of nuclear weapons — shapes the strategic situation, and, within that situation, lesser technological facts profoundly affect what policies and strategies are possible. However, despite the immense impact of technology or strategy, technological change and negotiated arms agreements are by no means incompatible, and — for all the very considerable changes in weapons that seem likely in the coming decade or so, and for all the real problems they pose — there exist important opportunities for agreement, if the political will exists on both sides to agree.