disarmament

disarmament Attempts to achieve disarmament by international agreement began at the Conferences of The Hague in 1899 and 1907, both of which were without significant results. After World War I, the League of Nations convened a conference of 60 nations in 1932–4. Its failure was caused partly by French caution, but more especially by Germany's withdrawal in October 1933. After World War II, the UNO established a permanent disarmament commission in 1952. During the height of the Cold War, progress was slow, and in 1957 the Soviet Union left the commission. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, which brought the two superpowers, the USA and the USSR, to the brink of a nuclear war, led for the first time to a general assessment of the consequences of a nuclear war and the popular appreciation that, as a result of its global consequences, it could not be won. It became evident to both sides that a further escalation of the Cold War had to be avoided, and this led to the partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 5 August 1963, signed by the USA, the Soviet Union, and the UK, banning nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere, in outer space, or underwater.

It was followed five years later by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1 July 1968, an agreement signed by the nuclear powers USA, USSR, and the UK, committing themselves not to aid other countries in the development of nuclear weapons. By 1994, this treaty had been ratified by 154 nations, though it was never signed by China or France, both of which had developed nuclear weapons by then. The treaty may have slowed down the spread of nuclear weapons, but it could not prevent it, as Israel, and possibly South Africa, India, and Pakistan developed nuclear weapons on their own. The original treaty expired in 1995, though the signatory states supported its extension as from 1996.

Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) between the USSR and the USA to limit long-range missiles and bombers began in November 1969, which led to the SALT I agreement of 26 May 1972. This limited the deployment of anti-ballistic missiles and froze the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles for the next five years, or until further SALT negotiations had been concluded. After six years of renewed talks, the SALT II treaty, which brought about only a minimal reduction in the number of missile launchers and other weapons, was concluded, but in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979, it was never ratified by the US Senate.

Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) began on 29 June 1982 in Geneva, were abandoned in 1983, but were resumed in 1985 after Gorbachev became the Soviet leader. The first START treaty, signed in July 1991 by Gorbachev and Bush, reduced each country's long-range missile launchers to 1,600, and warheads to 6,000. In December 1992 Bush and the Russian President Yeltsin signed a second START treaty which almost halved the number of warheads on each side.

Meanwhile, the Mutual and Balanced Force Reduction Talks (MBFR) in Vienna between members of NATO and the Warsaw Pact, which started on 30 October 1973, was concerned with limiting ground forces in Central Europe. As both sides were unable to overcome their mutual distrust, the talks ended on 2 February 1989 without agreement.

By contrast, the INF (Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces) Treaty, signed on 8 December 1987 by President Reagan and Soviet leader Gorbachev, was notable not only for the substantial reduction in nuclear arms, but also for the innovative verification procedures it prescribed, such as on-site inspection of nuclear stock at short notice. It reduced US stockpiles by 436 nuclear warheads, and Soviet ones by 957 missiles equipped with a total of 1,565 warheads by 1991.

The end of the Cold War led to hopes of substantial disarmament, which were partly realized. Some countries such as the Ukraine agreed to their nuclear weapons being destroyed, while in September 1996 a Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty was signed by the five traditional nuclear powers (China, France, Russia, UK, and USA), which was due to come into effect within three years, once it was signed by all powers with the capability to build nuclear weapons. Nevertheless, actual disarmament turned out to be less drastic than many had hoped, owing to continuing geo-political uncertainties about the stability of the states within the CIS, and international crises such as the Gulf War and the war in former Yugoslavia. In 2002, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty expired after twenty years. It was not renewed by President George W. Bush, who preferred instead to proceed with the creation of a nuclear shield over the US as part of National Missile Defence. In response, Russia abandoned the START II treaty of 1993, which had been superseded by an agreement on further missile reductions between Bush and Putin earlier in the year.

nuclear bomb