Description
The paper explores the role of status considerations in strategic arms control agreements. I argue that strategic arms control agreements play an important role in international politics of status. For an aspiring power, they translate unilaterally achieved material parity into mutually recognized equality with an established power. Status accommodation can compensate for inadequate security provisions as well as for unaddressed broader security concerns. Strategic arms control agreements have the potential to transform the international security hierarchy by creating exclusive great-power clubs with a highly limited membership. Using the cases of Japan's participation in the Washington Treaty, Soviet-American SALT and START agreements and Russian-American post-2000 arms control agreements (SORT Treaty and New START), I investigate under which circumstances status considerations matter and when status considerations can trump security concerns. I also explore the limitations of the role played by status considerations by analysing China's unwillingness to engage in the strategic arms control dialogue with the US.
