Proposals for a Nuclear Freeze

Abstract

In writing about freeze proposals, it is appropriate that I begin — to use the British parliamentary formula —by ‘declaring my interest’. I am in some sense one of those traditional arms control advocates who, while welcoming the freeze movement as mobilising almost unprecedented broad public support for arms control, nonetheless have reservations about the utility of the concept as an organising principle for a long-term, agreed structure for the US-Soviet nuclear relationship. My theme is that whatever those reservations may be, and I think they are justified, translating the concept into a plausibly definable and verifiable proposal should be directed at arranging a pause in the competition to give more focused negotiations a chance, not using the freeze concept as an organising principle for permanent structuring of the nuclear relationships between the superpowers.