Precision Weapons: Lowering the Risks with Aimed Shots and Aimed Tactics,

This paper deals with the implications of precision weapons being widely available, and with the opportunities for greater security opened up by these weapons. It deals both with how each superpower might project its power by the threat of using weapons of precisely controlled effects against the forces or homeland of the other -- including threats of nuclear use -- and with the way precision weapons could be used in wars removed from those homelands -- especially non-nuclear wars. It will say more on the second kind of use -- with special reference to NATOs Central Front -- than on the first. It also discusses the use of these weapons by the smaller countries, current trends in arms transfers, and some ideas for arms control which the new weapons suggest. The theme of the discussion is that strategies must be developed which cut risks by seeking carefully delimited goals, by trying for anticipated responses by the opponent -- and that technology now facilitates these strategies by permitting military power to be applied precisely.