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CIAO DATE: 05/06
Arms Control in an Age of Strategic and Military Revolution
Carl Conetta
October 2005
Abstract
We have come a long way since autumn 1989 and the few optimistic years that followed. During that dawn of the post-Cold War era, security policy discourse focused briefly on notions of common security and a peace dividend. Since then, these ideas have been displaced by other, more bellicose ones: the clash of civilizations, the war on terrorism, and their constant companion: the Revolution in Military Affairs.
My task today is to describe some of the challenges that the military revolution has set for arms control. But to do this I must place it in its broader context. The past 15 years have seen several types of relevant transformation – not just one. The strategic balance among nations has changed. The very composition of the strategic system has changed. And military technology has changed. These transformations have interacted to alter the global dynamics of war and military competition. And, together, they have established an entirely new (and not so friendly) context for arms control.
