An ambitious arms control agenda requires a new organization equal to the task

ABSTRACT

An exceedingly challenging agenda of urgent, important, and diverse arms control issues awaits the incoming Biden administration. To address it, the administration should consider the creation of a new agency to focus on cooperative threat reduction; alternatively, deft reorganization of key elements of the executive branch could be pursued swiftly, without requiring legislation. An examination of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency’s impressive record of accomplishments (and some failures) between 1961 and 1999, when it was disestablished, can help identify some ideas and options for its potential successor today.

KEYWORDS:

• Arms control
• arms control and disarmament agency
• cooperative threat reduction
• nuclear weapons

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

James E. Goodby

James E. Goodby has been a Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution since 2007. He works with former Secretary of State George P. Shultz on nuclear security issues. He served as Ambassador to Finland, and as an Atomic Energy Commission official and a Foreign Service Officer served as adviser or participant in many of the East-West security negotiations of the Cold War, from 1955 through 2000.

David A. Koplow

David A. Koplow is a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. He previously served as Deputy General Counsel for International Affairs at the Department of Defense and as attorney advisor and special assistant to the director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.