START (Strategic Arms Reduction Talks): Problems and Prospects.

This memorandum examines origins of SALT and the complexities of the strategic arms control process. It focuses on such problems as those that arise from dissimilar perceptions of threat, differing force structures, growing vulnerabilities, rapid technological change, and the imperatives of verification. The author concludes that many of the same factors that gave impetus to strategic arms control efforts in the late 1960s and early 1970s remain. Thus, despite the chilling of relations between Washington and Moscow as a result of such events as those in Afghanistan, Poland, and Grenada, the Soviet attack on Korean Air Lines 007 and missile deployments in Europe, there is reason for guarded optimism concerning the possibility of another superpower strategic arms control agreement. The Strategic Issues Research Memoranda program of the Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College, provides a means for timely dissemination of analytical papers which are not necessarily constrained by format or conformity with institutional policy. These memoranda are prepared on subjects of current importance in areas related to the authors professional work or interests. This memorandum was prepared as a contribution to the field of national security research and study.