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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 July 2024
“We must remember that we have reached our present tense international situation through a long series of unilateral steps in the building up ot armaments: the arms race itself is the result of unilateral initiatives by each side, Russia responding to increase in missiles by the United States and the latter deciding to increase its armaments whenever it learns (or suspects) that the Soviet Union has been doing so. The present competition in arms was not the product of international agreement but rather the fruit of a series of unilateral acts which stepped up tension and made a negotiating atmosphere more and more unlikely. The crucial question is not whether to act unilaterally but whether unilateral initiatives for peace can be as effective as unilateral armaments initiatives have been for war.” (Mulford Sibley).
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Unilateralism is a big word. Like Moliere's comment on prose, it is something we have been using all of our lives without knowing its exact nature. Perhaps this is because unilateralism is a notion which we have measured in terms of degree rather than kind. The rub seems to be in the word “degree.” Thus, to understand the significance of “unilateral initiatives,” and perhaps to appreciate the complexities in working out an intelligent strategy for winning international peace, it might be worthwhile to explain the varied aspects that attach to a concept of unilateralism.
1 There is an obvious overlap in the literature between unilateralism in general, and unilateral initiatives as such. The men and books herein taken account of are restricted to those who have had significant things to say only in the latter, irrespec tive of the extent of the wider literature on unilateral disarmament.
Erich Fromm, May Man Prevail? An Inquiry into the Facts and Fictions of Foreign Policy. Garden City, New York, Doubleday & Co., 1961; see also his essay on "The Case of Unilateral Disarmament," Arms Control, Disarmament, and National Security, edited by D. G. Brennan. New York, Braziller, 1961, pp. 187-197.
Charles Osgood, "Assumptions About National Security," Social Problems, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Summer, 1963), pp. 6-12.
Bertrand Russell, Has Man a Future? Baltimore, Penguin Books Ltd., 1961; also his Common Sense and Nuclear Warfare. New York, Simon & Schuster, 1961.
Mulford Q. Sibley, Unilateral Initiatives and Disarmament. Philadelphia, American Friends Service Committee, 1962; se also his "Unilateral Disarmament," America Armed: Essays on United States Military Policy, edited by Robert A. Goldwin. Chicago, Rand McNally & Co., pp. 112-140.
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