The Carter Administration established an arms transfer restraint policy known as PD-13. Barely two years later the PD-13 policy had for the most part been abandoned and arms sales levels were creeping back up towards Nixon-era levels. Why, then, did the Carter Administration's conventional arms transfer restraint policy fail? What can be learnt from that failure?

Using the theoretical lens of the implementation approach, this book examines the origins, context, development and fate of the Administration's conventional arms transfer restraint policy.