Arms Control '92 - Progress adn Permutations

While progress and change are seldom identical, the arms control community has experienced a significant measure of each over the past twelve months. In the implementation of existing agreements and in the traditional negotiating centers of Geneva and Vienna, progress has been marked by continuing cooperation under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and by the pending completion or ratification of the multilateral Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, the Open Skies Treaty and the long-awaited START Treaty. Even as these milestones have been met, however, the face of arms control has been changed by a number of bilateral initiatives between the U.S. and CIS Republics. On a more fundamental level, the focus of U.S. efforts has shifted dramatically to measures designed to ensure the safe containment and destruction of nuclear weapons and halt the worldwide proliferation of all weapons of mass destruction.