Is There Life after Death for Salt

The SALT I Freeze Agreement was signed in 1972. It expired by its terms in 1977. Four years later, those terms, for the most part, are still being observed. The SALT II Treaty was signed in 1979. The effort to ratify it faltered later that year and stopped in the fall of 1980, when we elected a President who opposed its ratification. But a year after most politicians and pundits pronounced SALT II dead, its terms also, for the most part, are still being observed. It is even possible that de facto observation may continue for the full duration of the SALT II Treaty, which would have expired at the end of 1985. Of course, there are legal difficulties with the posture of observing a treaty that has expired or not been ratified. Both sides have been careful to preserve the proprieties by proclaiming their own freedom of action, and by stating, in a lower key, no more than their present intentions to continue observing, assuming that the other side does also. In the United States, our separation of powers complicates the legal situation even further, and the Executive's statements do not bind the Congress. But the fact is that two years after SALT II was signed, and with the prospects for early ratification somewhere between low and invisible, the United States and the Soviet Union continue to abide by its terms, as well as those of the SALT I freeze on offensive launchers, now four years in its grave. Only the dismantling requirements of SALT II have gone by the boards-a pity because their impact would have been exclusively on the Soviets. Even so, we may well see each side doing some dismantlement for its own reasons. Why is there life after death for SALT? This article proposes to examine why this has come to pass, and where we can go from here

Political economy · Political science · Sociology · Military and Defense Studies · Space exploration and regulation

• The early formulation of Soviet strategic nuclear doctrine

  William C Green•Comparative Strategy•1984

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