Yesterday's Arms Control Will Not Prevent Nuclear War

Abstract

Even as prospects for direct U.S.-Soviet confrontation have decreased, the potential for international collision almost everywhere else is on the rise. Although arms control remains an important long-term issue in superpower relations, the United States and Soviet Union face a more imminent danger of unwanted nuclear escalation through the actions of unstable, unpredictable, and well-armed states in the Third World. This suggests that a better U.S. policy balance must be struck between central strategic threats, to which U.S. resources and attention have been devoted for forty years, and regional conflicts, for which there is a notable lack of contingency planning and a growing record of U.S. failure.