Balancing Cost and Effectiveness in Arms Control Monitoring
Abstract
This paper provides a qualitative assessment of arms control cost and effectiveness issues. Various chapters characterize some basic requirements for effective verification, summarize the monitoring activities incorporated into the INF, START, CFE, and CWC verification regimes, identify the costs of these monitoring activities as estimated in earlier IDA work, and discuss some reasons for the wide differences in costs among treaties. Drawing on both experience and observation about monitoring costs and effectiveness, the paper indicates where cost-saving modifications can be made to existing agreements and suggests some general principles for structuring monitoring regimes to maintain effectiveness while keeping costs at a minimum. These principles include: requiring the declaration of all facilities that are part of the infrastructure surrounding treaty-limited items and activities during the course of their operational lifetime; validating data at all declared facilities and, subsequently, inspecting those facilities on a quota basis; continuous monitoring of all elimination activities; and incorporating provisions for inspection of undeclared facilities. The paper argues that one frequently-included type of inspection, monitoring of production facilities, is unnecessary and, given the high cost involved, undesirable.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADA258579
Entities
People
- Jeffrey H. Grotte
- Julia L. Klare
Organizations
- Institute for Defense Analyses