The Future of Arms Control

Abstract

In June 1992, U.S. president George Bush and Russian president Boris Yeltsin met in Washington for their first major summit. The two leaders, chiefs of state from formerly bitter adversaries now meeting as friends, announced a number of major initiatives. Most profound, in many ways, was their accord on nuclear arms control: by roughly the year 2000, Bush and Yeltsin agreed, Russia and the United States would cut their strategic nuclear arsenals to a level of not more than 3,500 warheads, less than a third of their peak during the cold war. Many observers immediately hailed the agreement as the most important symbol to date of the cold war’s passing and a positive step toward lasting U.S.-Russian friendship.