ABSTRACT
After years in obscurity, conventional arms control is moving toward the forefront of the security debate in the Atlantic alliance. The long moribund talks on mutual and balanced force reductions (MBFR) will probably soon be replaced by new negotiations on conventional "stability" in the region from the Atlantic to the Urals. This change of forum coincides with new political interest in conventional arms control, stemming in large measure from the debate over nuclear weapons and NATO strategy. The superpower agreement to the so-called double-zero solution for intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF) helped spur this newfound interest. With the deterrent value of nuclear weapons seemingly on the wane, politicians and analysts alike are looking toward NATO's conventional forces to provide an increased increment to deterrence. By the same token, many Western politicians see conventional arms control as a means to solving NATO's conventional defense problems. In other words, they are looking to conventional defense and arms control policy to work together.
