The Future of Arms Control

Arms Control, once a keystone of American foreign policy, has fallen out of favour with many U.S. policymakers. Yet it is needed more than ever, although in a different from. Levi and O’Hanlon underscore that future arms control must have cleaer priorities and focus on proliferation of the most dangerous technologies to the most dangerous actors. It must also provide early warning of violations, partly to allow coercive action to be considered in the event of such violations. Rather than hold our the fanciful prospect of nuclear abolition as an incentive for non-nuclear states to forgo nuclear weapons, it should offer security guarantees to a growing collective security community of democratic, peaceful states.