Research Analyst Connor Murray authored an op-ed in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists about the importance of immediately engaging in arms control with Russia as we are now less than three years away from the expiration of the New START agreement between the world’s two largest nuclear powers.
“The nuclear landscape today is far more complicated than it was during the Cold War. Tensions between the United States and Russia are at highs not seen, perhaps, since the Cuban Missile Crisis. At the same time, China appears to be aggressively increasing its nuclear capabilities, while North Korea conducted far more missile tests in 2022 than in any year since 1984. This environment is all the more reason to champion arms control over a potentially escalatory new arms race.
The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) is the only remaining arms control treaty between the United States and Russia. It limits the United States and Russia to 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads each and provides a legally binding cap on what could otherwise become a nuclear arms race. New START is set to expire on February 5, 2026, and Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine has cast a shadow on prospects to negotiate a follow-on to this agreement. Retaining New START would be the most desirable outcome, but it would be wise to consider an alternative if no follow-on is agreed to by 2026.
We’ve done the hard work before. The United States and the Soviet Union took many steps during the Cold War that made the world less safe. Nuclear saber-rattling by both countries enabled the nuclear arms race that culminated in a combined stockpile of over 70,000 nuclear warheads, putting much of the world’s population at risk. Even today, the arsenals of the United States and Russia still account for 90 percent of global nuclear warheads, though the numbers now hover at around 4,000 warheads each. How did we get from the peaks during the Cold War to the current numbers?
The answer is simple: Arms control.” Read more
