Arms Control Negotiations and the Stability of Crisis Management

Since the early 1960s arms control negotiations have occupied a large and growing proportion of the political relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. In recent years these negotiations have become the main component of superpower diplomacy, and more specifically, they have become a litmus test of the capacity of these governments to deal effectively with each other. This is a test that by most measures these governments are failing (Vogele, 1986: 1).