Disarmament Diplomacy

Issue No. 10, November 1996

Independent 'task force' pronounces on US arms control policy

On 23 October, a panel of US arms control experts, assembled by the Council on Foreign Relations and the Nixon Centre for Peace and Freedom, released a report - Arms Control and the US-Russian Relationship: Problems, Prospects and Prescriptions - urging a revitalisation of US arms control policy. The panel, chaired by Robert M. Blackwill, suggested: extending the deadline for the implementation of START II from 2003 to 2006; agreeing a statement of principles with Russia on the objectives of a START III accord; and increasing US financial and technical assistance to help Russia dismantle nuclear weapons and protect its stockpile.

The panel also recommends that the US assess its own compliance with the ABM Treaty if negotiations to define permissible systems fail. Two thirds of the panel expressed the hope that Russia would be prepared to develop "an effective theater missile defense system, and then a limited national missile defense system, in a joint venture with the US."

Report: Task force calls for revitalising arms control process, Armed Forces Newswire Service, 23 October.

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