Nuclear security

A new push for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty?

“Realists” represent arms control treaties as deals—negotiated accommodations of interests. But treaties also implicitly tell stories. They embody narratives of how we can make the world a better place. These narratives become compelling if they seem simultaneously hopeful and realistic.

The SALT I Treaty of 1972 between the United States and the Soviet Union did not just enact restrictions on the number of missile launchers the two superpowers could field. It also ushered in the era of détente by embodying in its enactment the belief that Washington and Moscow could increase geopolitical stability by regulating their competition. It implicitly established a new frame of possibility in the superpower relationship—not amity, but codified competition.