Abstract
This chapter describes and explains the patterns of state leadership during the negotiations on the selected multilateral arms control treaties. More specifically, it focuses on the leadership roles performed by the following three groups of states: the military superpowers constituted by the United States and the Soviet Union/Russia; other military major powers consisting of the other three permanent members of the Security Council of the United Nations, namely Britain, China, and France; and middle powers.
In addition to analysing the general patterns, the chapter pays a particular attention to the case of China. To explain the variation in the identified leadership patterns, the chapter departs from the realist approach to international relations.
In line with this approach, it focuses on the influence of state preferences and capabilities on leadership actions. In empirical terms, the chapter analyses the negotiations on eight multilateral arms control treaties.
These treaties include five treaties that ban or regulate the development and use of particular categories of weapons of mass destruction, namely the BWC, CTBT, CWC, NPT, and PTBT. Treaties that ban, or regulate, the possession, use, and other activities related to the specific types of conventional weapons form the second group of treaties explored by this chapter.
This group involves the APMBC, CCCW, and CCM.