ARMS CONTROL AND DISARMAMENT: AN ECONOMIC
From the time of the detonation of a nuclear weapon by the Soviet Union in the late 1940s through the demise of that nation in the early 1990s, arms control and disarmament reigned as one of the foremost international issues (Wright and McManus, 1991, pp. 135 223). The conflict over arms control and disarmament existed primarily between the United States and the Soviet Union (Spangler, 1991, pp. 108 342). This research analyzes the arms control and disarmament conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union in an economic context.
The central hypotheses in international relations theory the systemic and what Kenneth Waltz (1959, pp. 80 123) designated as "the second image" tend to conflict with one another. The systemic hypothesis holds generally that the international relations policy of a given state tends to be a product of the international regime of which it is a part (Rogowski, 1987, pp. 1121 1137). The second image hypothesis holds contrarily that the international relations policy of a state tends to be a product of domestic political structures and pressures (Katzenstein, 1978, pp. 295 336). While systemic and second image hypotheses espouse conflicting approaches to the adoption by states of international relations policy, Rogowski (1987, pp. 1121 1137), Katzenstein (1978, pp. 295 336), Gourevitch (1977, pp. 281 313), and Waltz (1959, pp. 16 41, 80 123) all agree that economic imperatives underlie such policy making.
The above named theorists acknowledge the significance of economic interests in the creation and functioning of international regimes. Rogowski (1987, pp. 1121 1137) generally holds that the liberal international arrangements for trade and international finance may be interpreted as responses to the need for policy coordination created by the fact of interdependence. Such arrangements contain the rules, norms, principles and decision maki...