Questions About the Arms Race: Who's Racing Whom. A Bureaucratic Perspective

摘要

The report focuses exclusively on American and Western thinking about the arms race and strategic arms limitation. Questions are raised regarding the accepted account of how U.S. and Soviet strategic forces interact. Several examples of the accepted answer to this question are presented. In particular, arms race analysts have identified MIRV (multiple independently-targeted reentry vehicles) as a U.S. reaction to Soviet ABM. Five general questions are posed about the interaction between U.S. and Soviet strategic forces. Episodes from MIRV's development and deployment provide partial answers to each question. Because MIRV is a single weapons system, examined on the basis of limited public sources from one side of the arms race, this case yields few definite conclusions. However, certain characteriestics difficulties for the prevailing action-reaction hypothesis are identified. Some conclusions are drawn about the arms race, and tentative implications of this argument for strategic arms limitations are spelled out.