A 1995 Presidential Executive Order established a board to advise the president on implementing a policy on conventional (nonnuclear) arms and technology transfer. The board was to study the factors that contribute to the proliferation of strategic and advanced conventional military weapons and technology and the policy options the United States might use to inhibit such proliferation. Shrinking federal budgets have made exports of all kinds, including weapons, an attractive means of shoring up a country's industrial base. The heart of the problem is striking a balance between the preservation of military production and a healthy industrial base on the one hand, and restraining exports that proliferate advanced weapons. Foreign policy, national security, and economic interests that are served by the approval or denial of weapons sales can be compelling, but often pull in different directions. Striking the right balance among cross-cutting priorities is the key to an effective weapons transfer policy. This report discusses trends in the international arms markets, how transfers of weapons and technology are controlled, the economics of arms exports, and the relationship between arms exports and a country's economy.

Thomas Graham Jr. played a role in the negotiation of every major international arms control and non-proliferation agreement signed by the United States during the past thirty years. As a U.S. government lawyer and diplomat, he helped to shape, negotiate, and secure U.S. ratification of such cornerstones of international security as SALT, START, and the ABM, INF, and CFE treaties as well as conventions prohibiting biological and chemical weapons. Graham’s memoir offers a history of the key negotiations which have substantially reduced the threat of nuclear war. His is a personal account of bureaucratic battles over arms control in six administrations, navigating among the White House, Congress, cabinet secretaries, and agencies with overlapping responsibilities and often competing interests. No comparable text brings together detailed analyses of so many pivotal documents in the history of the Cold War; it offers abundant primary source material for historians, international lawyers, and arms control specialists around the world. Disarmament Sketches also charts the rise and fall of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, the only U.S. government agency with primary responsibility for arms control policy, and lays out an agenda for continuing progress in reducing weapons stockpiles around the globe. Throughout his career, Graham has worked tirelessly to reverse the nuclear arms race and to persuade leaders around the world to make their nations safer by renouncing and reducing their weapons of mass destruction.

In Dangerous Ground, Scott Ritter, one of the world's leading experts on arms control, tells a bold and revisionist account of the inseparable histories of the post-World War II American presidency and nuclear weapons. Unpacking sixty years of nuclear history, Ritter shows that nuclear weapons have become such a fixture that they define present-day America on economic, military, political, and moral grounds. And despite fears of global nuclear proliferation, the greatest threat to international stability, Ritter argues, is the US's addiction to nuclear weapons. Even in light of Barack Obama's historic speech in April 2009 - which called for the eventual abolition of nuclear weapons - America continues to guard a significant and dangerous nuclear stockpile. The notion that we are more secure with nuclear weapons is deeply entrenched in the American psyche - and virulently protected by forces in the US establishment. As long as this paradigm persists, Ritter suggests, there will be no fundamental US policy change, and as such, no change in global nuclear proliferation.

Contents: Bridging the Gaps on Arms Control Nancy W. Gallagher. Arms Control in the Information Age Emily O. Goldman. A New Role for Transparency Ann M. Florini. Beyond Deterrence, Defence, and Arms Control Gloria Duffy. Nuclear Arms Control through Multilateral Negotiations Rebecca Johnson. The Impact of Govermental Context on Negotiation and Implementation: Constraints and Opportunities for Change Amy Sands. The Politics of Verification: Why How Much?' is Not Enough Nancy W. Gallagher.