Arms control is meant to break the security dilemma.

It aims at mutual security between partners and overall stability (be it in a crisis situation, a grand-
strategy, or stability to put an end to an arms race).
Other than stability, arms control comes with cost reduction and damage limitation.

Foundations
The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 are a series of international treaties and declarations
negotiated at two international peace conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands.

The Geneva Conventions comprise four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish the
standards of international law for humanitarian treatment in war.
Along with the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Conventions were among the first formal statements
of the laws of war and war crimes in the body of secular international law.
A third conference was planned for 1914 and later rescheduled for 1915, but it did not take place
due to the start of World War I.

1. Washington Naval Conference (12 November 1921 to 6 February 1922)

also called the Washington Arms Conference or the Washington Disarmament Conference
It was the first international conference held in the United States
and the first arms control conference in history
it resulted in three major treaties: Four-Power Treaty, Five-Power Treaty(more commonly known as
the Washington Naval Treaty), the Nine-Power Treaty, and a number of smaller agreements.
agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction.

2. Geneva Protocol signed in 17 June 1925 and entered into force on 8 February 1928
is a treaty prohibiting the use of chemical and biological weapons in international armed conflicts.
It prohibits the use of "asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and of all analogous liquids, materials
or devices" and "bacteriological methods of warfare

3. Antarctic Treaty, signed 1959, entered into force 1961

regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica,

The treaty was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War.

The treaty sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, establishes freedom of scientific
investigation and bans military activity on the continent.

4. Partial Test Ban Treaty, signed and entered into force 1963
Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water,
which prohibited all test detonations of nuclear weapons except for those conducted underground.

The Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT) and Nuclear Test Ban
Treaty (NTBT),

latter may also refer to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT),

this was abandoned due to technical questions surrounding the detection of underground tests

signed by the governments of the Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and United States in Moscow

but not ratified

A test ban was also seen as a means of slowing nuclear proliferation and the nuclear arms race.

5. Outer Space Treaty, signed and entered into force 1967

Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer
Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies

a treaty that forms the basis of international space law.

6. Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, signed 1968, entered into force 1970

to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the
peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and
general and complete disarmament.

The treaty defines nuclear-weapon states as those that have built and tested a nuclear explosive
device before 1 January 1967; these are the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France,
and China.

7. Seabed Arms Control Treaty, signed 1971, entered into force 1972

Also known Treaty on the Prohibition of the Emplacement of Nuclear Weapons and Other
Weapons of Mass Destruction on the Sea-Bed and the Ocean Floor and in the Subsoil thereof

banning the emplacement of nuclear weapons or "weapons of mass destruction" on the ocean floor
beyond a 12-mile (22.2 km) coastal zone

8. Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I), signed and ratified 1972, in force 1972-1977

were two rounds of bilateral conferences, Helsinki, Finland, in November 1969 : SALT I and SALT II.

SALT I led to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty

SALT II resulted in an agreement in 1979, the United States Senate chose not to ratify the treaty in
response to the Soviet war in Afghanistan
The Soviet legislature also did not ratify it. The agreement expired on December 31, 1985 and was
not renewed.

9. Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, signed and entered into force 1972, terminated following U.S.
withdrawal 2002

Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM Treaty or ABMT) (1972—2002) was between the United
States and the Soviet Union

on the limitation of the anti-ballistic missile (ABM) systems used in defending areas
against ballistic missile-delivered nuclear weapons.

each party was limited to two ABM complexes, each of which was to be limited to 100 anti-ballistic
missiles

10. Biological Weapons Convention, signed 1972, entered into force 1975

Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of

Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction

first multilateral disarmament treaty banning the production of an entire category of weapons

to establish a new instrument that would supplement the 1925 Geneva Protocol.

The United States Congress passed the Bioweapons Anti-Terrorism Act in 1989 to implement the
Convention.

11. Threshold Test Ban Treaty, signed 1974, entered into force 1990
Treaty on the Limitation of Underground Nuclear Weapon Tests
establishes a nuclear "threshold," by prohibiting tests of nuclear devices having a yield exceeding
150 kilotons
it removes the possibility of testing new or existing nuclear weapons going beyond the fractional-
megaton range.

12. Environmental Modification Convention, signed 1977, entered into force 1978
Environmental Modification Convention (ENMOD),
formally the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of
Environmental Modification Techniques
The Convention bans weather warfare, which is the use of weather modification techniques for the
purposes of inducing damage or destruction.

Convention on Biological Diversity of 2010 would also ban some forms of weather modification or
geoengineering

13. Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, signed 1980, entered into force 1983
prohibit or restrict the use of certain conventional weapons which are considered excessively
injurious or whose effects are indiscriminate
 14. Moon Treaty, signed 1979, entered into force 1984
Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies
including the orbits around such bodies) over to the international community

a failed treaty because it has not been ratified by any state that engages in self-
launched manned space exploration or has plans to do so
(As of January 2018, it had been ratified by 18 states)

15. Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, signed 1987, entered into force 1988

in the Elimination of Their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles, a 1987 agreement

between the United States and the Soviet Union

eliminated all nuclear and conventional missiles, as well as their launchers

(The treaty did not cover sea-launched missiles)

By May 1991, 2,692 missiles were eliminated,

16. Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, (CFE Treaty) signed 1990, entered into
force 1992

established comprehensive limits on key categories of conventional military equipment in Europe

treaty proposed equal limits for the two "groups of states-parties", the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) and the Warsaw Pact.

17. Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty I (START I), signed 1991, entered into force 1994,
expired 2009 On 8 April 2010, the replacement New START treaty was signed in Prague
START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) was on the reduction and limitation of strategic
offensive arms
6,000 nuclear warheads atop a total of 1,600 inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and
bombers.
Proposed by United States President Ronald Reagan, it was renamed START I after negotiations
began on the second START treaty.

18. START II, signed 1993, ratified 1996 (United States) and 2000 (Russia), terminated
following Russian withdrawal 2002
United States President George H. W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin on 3
January 1993

banning the use of multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs) on intercontinental
ballistic missiles (ICBMs) (also called De-MIRV-ing Agreement.)
Russia n 14 June 2002, withdrew from the treaty in response to U.S. withdrawal from the ABM
Treaty.

19. Chemical Weapons Convention, signed 1993, entered into force 1997

outlaws the production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons and their precursors

The main obligation of member states under the convention is to effect this prohibition, as well as
the destruction of all current chemical weapons.

All destruction activities must take place under OPCW verification.

20. Open Skies Treaty, signed 1992, entered into force 2002

currently has 34 party states

It establishes a program of unarmed aerial surveillance flights over the entire territory of its
participants.

It is designed to promote "mutual aerial observation"

The treaty is designed to enhance mutual understanding and confidence by giving all participants,
regardless of size, a direct role in gathering information about military forces and activities of
concern to them.

21. Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, signed 1996, has not entered into force

Designed for banning of bans all nuclear explosions, for both civilian and military purposes, in all
environments.

United Nations General Assembly on 10 September 1996, but has not entered into force, as eight
specific states have not ratified the treaty.

22. Ottawa Treaty on anti-personnel land mines, signed 1997, entered into force 1994

The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-
Personnel Mines and on their Destruction,

known informally as the Ottawa Treaty, the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, or often
simply the Mine Ban Treaty,

aims at eliminating anti-personnel landmines (AP-mines) around the world.

164 state parties United States, Russia, China and India are non-signatories

22. Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT), signed 2002, entered into force 2003,
expires 2012
also known as the Treaty of Moscow,

both parties (US & Russia) agreeing to limit their nuclear arsenal to between 1,700 and 2,200
operationally deployed warheads each

it was superseded by the New START treaty

23. International Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation, signed 2002

Also known as Hague Code of Conduct (HCOC), to prevent the proliferation of ballistic missiles.

international efforts to regulate access to ballistic missiles which can potentially deliver weapons of
mass destruction

The HCOC does not ban ballistic missiles, but it does call for restraint in their production,
testing, and export.

24. Convention on Cluster Munitions, signed 2008, entered into force 2010

prohibits the use, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster bombs, a type of explosive weapon which
scatters submunitions ("bomblets") over an area.

The signatories are bounds to never

(a) Use cluster munitions;

(b) Develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer to anyone, directly or indirectly,
cluster munitions;
(c) Assist, encourage or induce anyone to engage in any activity prohibited to a State Party under
this Convention.

25. New START Treaty, signed by Russia and the United States in April 2010, entered into
force in February 2011

nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation with the
formal name of Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. It
was signed on 8 April 2010 in Prague

New START replaced the Treaty of Moscow (SORT)

Under terms of the treaty, the number of strategic nuclear missile launchers will be reduced by half.

26. Arms Trade Treaty, concluded in 2013, entered into force on 24 December 2014

regulates the international trade in conventional weapons.

The ATT is an attempt to regulate the international trade of conventional weapons for the purpose of
contributing to international and regional peace;

reducing human suffering; and promoting co-operation, transparency, and responsible action
by and among states.
 The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, or the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty,
is the first legally binding international agreement to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons, with
the goal of leading towards their total elimination. It was passed on 7 July 2017.

treaty prohibits the development, testing, production, stockpiling, stationing, transfer, use
and threat of use of nuclear weapons, as well as assistance and encouragement to the prohibited
activities.