A new kind of arms race seems to be underway. Led by western democracies, especially the United States, revolutionary ways of waging conventional warfare are being developed. In the face of this, other countries will attempt to compensate for their weaknesses by unconventional means, and as a result the spread of weapons of mass destruction is likely to accelerate. Countries with nuclear weapons might react by maintaining and if necessary increasing their nuclear arsenals, rather than by reducing them. In this situation arms controls and non-proliferation might play an important stabilizing role, however the United States is displaying growing scepticism towards multilateral, binding security policy tools. There is an increasing threat of unilateralism in international security policy. The project is aimed at strengthening European positions in arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation. This includes the following points:

• development of realistic approaches to negotiations in progress and identification of further possibilities for cooperation;
• examination of the non-governmental sector’s chances of supporting arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation;
• counselling services to European governments and institutions and building up a network of European experts.