Don’t Lose That Sense of Control : Key arms control agreement should propel policy

Enough has gone wrong with the world in recent years that every once in a while someone is heard to crack a sophomoric joke about missing the relative peace, quiet and stability of the Cold War. But as the recent renewal of the 25-year-old treaty banning the spread of nuclear weapons served to remind everyone, the world, for all its new and continuing problems, is so much better without the fearsome cloud of nuclear destruction hanging over it.

Let us never forget what that horrible old situation was like. It was a precarious state indeed when Moscow and Washington had poised in each other’s face the greatest assortment of mass-destruction tools ever assembled. Eliminating the threat of that hair-trigger nuclear Armageddon was surely the single most beneficial consequence of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the dismemberment of the Soviet empire and the ratcheting down of the nuclear arsenals.

GOOD NEWS: Some momentum remains. The continuing pressure for world de-nuclearization was re-emphasized at the United Nations in New York last week. The American-backed resolution to indefinitely extend the 25-year-old Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was approved overwhelmingly. Said an understandably proud Madeleine K. Albright, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, the treaty’s renewal “should make the world a safer place for us and for our children.”

That indeed should prove to be the case as long as the world keeps a careful eye on those nations that mutter under their breath that it might be nice to have few nukes around to lob at some neighboring state when they felt like it. Iraq, at least under its present leadership, obviously cannot be trusted; Iran and North Korea continue to be problems; and Pakistan, India and Israel never signed the treaty. So support for the treaty, while overwhelming, is alas not universal.

BUILDING BLOCK: Moreover, relations between Moscow and Washington are still not good enough that continued progress in all areas of arms control, even conventional, is assured. The START II treaty would by the year 2003 cut the arsenals of the two nuclear powers down to 3,500 warheads each. But ratification is not a done deal. Also shaky is the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe, which would trim the non-nuclear arsenals of the pact’s 22 signatories. But, on the plus side, Moscow and Washington are reaching an understanding on the need for theater missile defenses to fend off the likes of the present and future Iraqs of the world.

All the problems and obstacles are all the more reason for the Clinton Administration not to lose sight of what is at stake here. The great benefits of the end of the Cold War provide the world community with a powerful platform on which to build. Washington must keep in mind that of all the demons threatening the world, nuclear war is second to none in potential ferocity and totality. The renewal of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is not only a cause for applause, it should serve as a powerful motivator to propel American policy to new arms-control achievements. That is the legacy we must give our children.