Calculated Risks

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Berkowitz (American Security) argues that the Incidents at Sea Treaty, the Hot Line Agreement and the 1968 Nonproliferation Treaty ``probably account for the vast share of whatever success arms control can claim.'' His study is about how arms-control negotiations are shaped by domestic factors, how countries usually respond to arms-control treaties and how there must be a better way to go about it. He advocates as a first step the presidential appointment of a ``czar'' with near-total authority over U.S. arms-control policy. A former visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution and the Hoover Institution, Berkowitz analyzes the past and future problems presented by technology in the arms-control field. ``Controlling arms,'' he argues, ``is in large part a problem of controlling technology.'' The study includes a useful summary of arms-control negotiations and agreements over the past century. (November)