For ardent gun-control advocates, it is an opportunity to press for a binding effort to reduce small-arms stocks around the world.

ECONOMIST: Controlling the world's guns | The

In other words, President Bush risks having a unilateral decision to reduce American strategic nuclear forces by two-thirds over the next decade morphed by his Secretary of State into a binding bilateral agreement, replete with verification mechanisms carried forward from earlier arms control treaties.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Is the Cold War ��Over'?