The Foreign Service Journal, December 2009

D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 9 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 21 rms control — typically through agreed measures to reduce or limit the posses- sion or use of weapons — has been a component of national, and global, security for over a century. The invention and use of nuclear weapons stimulated a renewed and urgent international focus on arms control after World War II. The new United Nations provided a forum for initial efforts to ban nuclear weapons outright. In 1945, the United States proposed the Baruch Plan, which would have established an international authority with F O C U S O N A R M S C O N T R O L O RGANIZING FOR A RMS C ONTROL : 1945-2009 P REVENTING THE USE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS REMAINS THE URGENT PRIORITY IT HAS BEEN FROM THE DAWN OF THE ATOMIC AGE . B Y P IERCE S. C ORDEN Adam Niklewicz A