The continued existence of vast nuclear arsenals in Russia and the United States, together with the risks of proliferation to other countries and terrorist groups, leaves the United States vulnerable to new and perhaps less manageable threats. Questions arise as to whether, how, and to what extent such threats can be manage through arms control arrangements, and whether it is possible to eliminate nuclear weapons entirely.
Over the course of 1996 and 1997, the Council on Foreign Relations assembled a diverse group of experts under the aegis of the John J. McCloy Roundtable, chaired by General Larry D. Welch, USAF (Ret.), to examine the desirability and feasibility of eliminating nuclear weapons on a global scale. In this report, General Welch examines the rewards and pitfalls of reducing nuclear stockpiles to successively lower levels-including zero- and identifies specific problems that mist be resolved at each stage of such a reduction process, if is to prove viable.