A CRITICAL REVIEW OF GLOBAL ARMS RACE CONTROL MEASURES FROM 1968 TO 2017

Abdulmajid M. Na'Inna, Vladimir Anti-Danso

Abstract


Arms race control measures are put in place to reduce arms races and their negative influence on global peace and security to an acceptable limit. Treaties and agreements have been renewed at intervals to ensure that arms races were effectively controlled amongst states. The control measures range from multinational and bilateral treaties among states. Prominent arms race control measures with impact on the reduction of strategic competition especially on military amongst states are reviewed in this study. These include Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), Strategic Arms Limitation Talks and (SALT) and the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Others are the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), Strategic Offensive Reduction Treaty (SORT), New START and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). These control measures made impact in the reduction of nuclear weapons from a peak value of over 60,000 in 1987 and to about 14,000 in 2018. International regulatory agencies and organisations like the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) are established to ensure compliance through inspection, safeguard and enforcement where necessary on global arms race control in nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.  Despite the successes recorded by these institutions, there are still certain challenges that hinder their full effectiveness. Consequently, recommendations are offered to the United Nations (UN) as the global body responsible for ensuring peace and stability to ensure review, compliance and enforcement where possible to the arms races control measures.

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References


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