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Question #3

Q:  What is the difference between arms limitations and arms reductions?  What are some examples of each type of arms control?  Evaluate the merits of each.

Arms limitations impose a cap on the number of a type of weapon, categorical restrictions, development restrictions, testing restrictions, and/or deployment restriction.  Arms restrictions reduce the actual number of a type of weapon, such as the START treaties.  The primary differences between the two types of arms controls are that limitations primarily prevent an increase in the number of weapons a nation has and reductions reduce the numbers and categories of arms that a nation owns.

There are three primary areas that arms limitations deal with, these are numerical caps, placement, and categories.  Two good examples of numerical limitation are the SALT I and SALT II treaties which also limit the types of US and USSR strategic weapons.  Some placement treaties are the Antarctic Treaty, the Outer Space Treaty and the Seabed Arms Control Treaty.  The ABM Treaty of 1972 and the Geneva Protocol exemplify categorical limitations.  Treaties have been made to limit nuclear weapons, biological weapons, chemical weapons, environmental modification, and conventional arms.

The two primary examples of arms reduction are the START treaties, which have accomplished what was once thought impossible, reducing world arsenals by approximately twenty seven thousand nuclear warheads.

Arms limitations have the most potential for success.  Unlike reductions, limitations do not take away the existing defense and offense capability of nations.  Limitations are typically common sense proposals acceptable to most nations.  They range from demilitarizing certain areas, such as space, to placing limits on weapons of mass destruction.  Unfortunately, in times of war arms limitations figuratively go out the window.  For example, there used to be limitations on the size and capabilities of warships, but once nations began preparing for war these limitations were ignored.  TNT was once considered a weapon of mass destruction and too powerful a weapon to be allowed for warlike uses.  Today, TNT is a minor explosive compared to modern weapons, all of which are used routinely.  Thus, arms controls are useful tools in times of peace, even a stressed peace as in the cold war, but are ignored when it really counts.

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