Arms Control and Peace Research by Raymond Aron81.pdfVIP

Arms Control and Peace Research RAYMOND ARON THE TANNER LECTURES ON H UMAN VALUES Delivered at Clare Hall, Cambridge University November 22, 1979 RAYMON D ARON studied philosophy at the Ecole Normale Superiéure and at the Sorbonne. Following the agrégation de philosophie, he studied in Germany, especially the phe- nomenologists Husserl and Heidegger and the sociolo- gists, primarily Max Weber. Before the war, he published books on German sociology and philosophy of history and an Introduction to the Philosophy of History. After the war, he combined a journalistic career as columnist for Figaro, from 1947 to 1977, and now the Express, with teaching at the Sorbonne and finally at the College de France. His best-known books are T h e Opium of the In - tellectuals, Eighteen Lectures on Industrial Society, Peace and War among Nations, Essay on Liberties, Penser la guerre, Clausewitz, and In Defense of Decadent Europe. The juxtaposition of the two notions arms control and peace research may at first sight surprise the reader. The first notion implies theoretical and practical research into the ways first, of reducing the risk of war, and nuclear war in particular; second, of reducing devastation if in spite of everything war were to break out; and third, of reducing the cost of armaments and slow- ing down the arms race. The second notion encompasses all studies relating to the causes of wars and, in more general terms, all the situations and practices dangerous to peace. The classical period of arms control, a conception of Ameri- can origin, occurred during the later 1950’s and the early 1960’s. It developed in response to the strategic and technical studies car- ried out on nuclear arms and their impact on diplomacy and war. The peace research institutes which proliferated mainly