Post‐Helsinki conventional arms control: The qualitative dimension

The collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the demilitarization of eastern Europe, apprehension over the future political shape of the continent, and the need to assimilate the changes in the European security environment have injected great uncertainty into the conventional arms control process.But despite the successes of recent years, not all of the threats to security that conventional arms control can ameliorate (directly or indirectly) have been addressed.As we think beyond the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) follow-up meeting in Helsinki in 1992, and the elaboration of a mandate for conventional arms control under the CSCE umbrella, there is a need to chart an agenda for conventional arms control to meet these new and different threats.Central to this agenda is likely to be a more direct focus on the qualitative dimension of conventional arms control.Future negotiations will have to come to grips with several issues that revolve around military technology including:• arms procurement and modernization programmes;• arms production and defence industrial concerns;• military research and development (R&D) and testing; and• the global proliferation of sophisticated conventional weapons and arms production technologies.Not all of these are equally important, nor will all necessarily be tackled.But hitherto neglected qualitative issues should be among the next frontiers of arms control.In addition to arguing why this will be so, this article will make some practical suggestions for measures that could be adopted or negotiated in the realm of military technology.Put simply, the European and the global security environments are entering a period in which, as the use of force on a large scale becomes less likely, the need for military technological innovation and modernization become less pressing.There are four linked arguments (military/strategic, technological, economic and political), of differing degrees of importance, for a shift in the focus of conventional arms control towards qualitative issues.