Arms Control and World Order

On the way to a new world order we do not yet know, disorder is the new normal. The world is in a state of flux. Six features are particularly noteworthy. (1) Sovereign states are reemphasized and reconfirmed as the basic building blocks of international affairs. (2) Trade and technology wars and economic sanctions have moved to the top of the international agenda. (3) International norms, institutions, and agreements are falling apart. (4) Geopolitically, the tense relationship between the United States and China is increasingly dominant. (5) New technologies nurture new forms of influence and capacities for violence. (6) Inherent in all of this, international affairs have become more unpredictable. Such a world does not leave many options for cooperative action. In the military field, states have returned to unilateral security policies as primitive as those of the Cold War. There is one overriding common concern, however: to avoid nuclear war. To this end, stability measures - the primary objective of arms control - are of the essence. The need for a global framework for responsible nuclear conduct, arms control, and disarmament, realistic enough to gain traction while capturing the aspiration of a world free of nuclear dangers, is at least as strong as 60 years ago, when arms control was first introduced.