How and why does arms control emerge and how and why does it collapse? This dissertation examines the evolution of the Washington Treaty System, a security system established in the Far East at the end of World War I. A set of interlocking political and naval agreements regulated political and territorial position in the Pacific by limiting capital ships--the strategic system of the day, index of great power, and key instrument of world politics--and managing competition in China. The treaty system represented a first step toward the creation of a new international order to fill the vacuum left by the demise of the European system after World War I.;The thesis demonstrates the importance of examining arms control within its broader political-historical context; that arms control is a political process, embedded as much in great power rivalry and the desire to extend influence as in a calculation of how to avoid war or an arms race. The Washington Treaty System suggests the importance of linking arms control to political resolutions of tension, particularly in regional security systems where security issues cannot be easily decoupled. The thesis demonstrates how agreeing only on technical issues, without adequately accommodating foreign policy goals, can create destabilizing consequences in weapons development, on the strategic balance, and in great power relations. Finally, the historical experience of the Washington Treaty System reveals how differing perceptions of what security entails, and of what role arms control is perceived to play in enhancing security, can lead to radically different interpretations of treaties and to different expectations about the types of behavior treaty compliance requires.;The dependent variable, system change, is sub-divided into system formation and system evolution. System formation explains the treaties negotiated at the Washington Conference of 1921-22. System evolution examines how cooperation, based on these treaties, changed, adapted, and ultimately collapsed. Explaining system change requires examining variables at different levels of analysis. This study analyzes the economic, strategic, technological, geographic, and domestic constraints facing the treaty powers. It demonstrates how arms control initially facilitated and eventually obstructed the attainment of foreign policy objectives in the Far East and around the globe, given these constraints.
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