‘THE END OF NEW START DOESN’T HAVE TO MEAN THE END OF NUCLEAR ARMS CONTROL’
(FEBRUARY 4—WASHINGTON) The last remaining bilateral treaty restricting the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals — the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) — expires tomorrow. With deep concern for the future of nuclear arms control and the prospects of a new unwinnable nuclear arms race, the Council for a Livable World, and its sister organization the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, release the following statement:
“We have known that New START would end for 15 years, but no one has shown the necessary leadership to be prepared for its expiration,” said Senior Policy Director John Erath, a 30-year veteran of the Department of State who also served on the National Security Council. “The treaty limited the number of nuclear weapons the United States and Russia could have, but perhaps more importantly, New START also provided each country with unprecedented insights into the other’s arsenal so that Washington and Moscow could make decisions based on real information rather than speculation.
Before the United States and Soviet Union entered into the first bilateral arms control agreements during the Cold War, both countries engaged in a dangerous, expensive and unnecessary arms race. They amassed tens of thousands of nuclear weapons while simultaneously admitting they shouldn’t be used. Massive arsenals and the lack of transparency into each other’s arsenals led to uncertainty and perceptions of imminent danger — until agreements like New START and its predecessors were put into place.
With New START’s expiration, we have not only lost unprecedented verification measures that our military and decision-makers depended on, but we have ended more than five decades of painstaking diplomacy that successfully avoided nuclear catastrophe. Agreements preceding New START helped reduce the global nuclear arsenal by more than 80% since the height of the Cold War. Now, both Russia and the United States have no legal obstacle to building their arsenals back up, and we could find ourselves reliving the Cold War.
The good news is, the end of New START does not have to mean the end of nuclear arms control. While New START can’t be extended beyond today, Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin could decide to respect the numerical limits the treaty set on nuclear arsenals. They could also resume the treaty’s data exchanges and on-site inspections, in addition to implementing verification measures from other previous arms control treaties. Further, they could instruct their administrations to begin immediate talks on a new treaty to cover existing and novel systems and potentially bring in other nuclear powers, like China. Meanwhile, Congress could — and should — fund non-proliferation and global monitoring efforts while refusing to fund dangerous new nuclear weapons systems. Finally, the American public must insist that our leaders take this issue seriously. The diplomatic playbook to reduce the risks of nuclear arms racing and nuclear war exists and we can adapt it to better address challenges we face today.”
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CONTACT: Anna Schumann
Communications Director
aschumann@clw.org
