Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA)

Federal agency responsible for formulating, advocating, negotiating, implementing, and verifying arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament policies, strategies, and agreements. The agency was founded in 1960 as the U.S. Disarmament Administration, and it existed under that name until 1961. Today, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) is known as the Bureau of Arms Control; it is currently a division within the U.S. Department of State.

The ACDA has four divisions that are critical to national security: arms control, nonproliferation, political-military affairs, and verification and compliance. It is also responsible for negotiations, policy making, and the implementation of disarmament agreements. One example of the negotiations led by the Bureau of Arms Control is the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT). The treaty, signed on May 24, 2002, by U.S. president George W. Bush and Russian president Vladimir Putin, calls for the United States and Russia to place limits on the number of strategic nuclear warheads deployed by each nation. The SORT is the most significant arms control pact to be enacted between the two countries.

In addition to the SORT, the Arms Control Bureau has overseen negotiation of the long-standing but not yet ratified Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (START III) since 1991. At that time, the treaty was known as START I. The current START III calls for the destruction of strategic nuclear warheads, limits on tactical nuclear weapons, and restrictions on strategic warheads. Treaties such as SORT and START are intended to control the proliferation of weapons that threaten U.S. national security.

The agency is also responsible for preparing reports for the president and Congress on matters relating to arms control. These include the president's Annual Report to Congress on Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control Agreements, verifiability assessments for all nonproliferation agreements, and compliance reports required by U.S. Senate resolutions of ratification. For example, agency reports might discuss compliance of various nations with the Chemical Weapons Convention, a treaty regulating the development, production, stockpiling, use, and destruction of chemical weapons.

The Bureau of Arms Control is also involved in efforts to regulate the international arms trade and to destroy excess weapons stockpiles. In this capacity, the bureau has been assigned the task of removing land mines from former battlefields. In addition, it is charged with protecting U.S. soil and interests from the results of overseas incidents that are chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear in nature.

Another aspect of policy development that takes place under the auspices of the Bureau of Arms Control concerns policies related to confidence and security-building measures. These measures are acts aimed at dispelling distrust between rival nations. They typically involve mutual agreements to increase the transparency of arms acquisitions and other military activities by both sides. The Open Skies Treaty, for example, establishes the conduct of U.S. observation flights over Russian territories and Russian observation flights over U.S. territories.

Dealing with weapons proliferation, however, is not the only responsibility of the Bureau of Arms Control. The head of the bureau also advises the undersecretary of state for arms control and international security on issues such as nuclear testing and missile defense. In recent years, such activities have been a focus of criticism of the agency. Critics have even accused the bureau of obstructing efforts at arms control. The bureau has received international criticism for its handling of weapons searches in Iraq, its [Page 39]failure to oversee U.S. weapons sales to nondemocratic countries such as Pakistan, and its inability to reduce the large stockpiles of U.S. nuclear weapons.

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