The End of the Nuclear-Arms-Control Era

"In two days, New START, the last significant survivor of the age of nuclear-arms-control agreements that began in the 1960s, will come to an end. Donald Trump-a president who claims to be very concerned about "nuclear," his odd, one-word appellation for all things relating to nuclear weapons-has decided to let the treaty lapse. In July, Trump said that New START was "not an agreement you want expiring," but last month he backtracked: "If it expires, it expires.""

"The New START agreement between the United States and the Russian Federation, in force since 2011, puts caps on the number of American and Russian "strategic" weapons, the long-range missiles and bombers that can cover the thousands of miles between North America and Eurasia. It is the last in a line of treaties that helped stabilize the relationship between the superpowers during the the tense years of the Cold War,"

"Moscow suspended its participation in the treaty's ongoing processes (such as information exchanges) back in 2023 as part of the diplomatic sparring with the U.S. over Ukraine, but the Russians have nonetheless offered to abide by the treaty's numerical limits for one more year. The Trump administration has shown little interest in even this much. As the nuclear-arms researcher Pavel Podvig noted last week, "the US expert and political community has essentially reached consensus on the need to expand the US strategic arsenal.""

New START will expire on Thursday, ending the last major arms-control treaty limiting U.S. and Russian strategic forces. The treaty, in force since 2011, capped long-range missiles and bombers capable of crossing continents and served as the final remnant of Cold War-era nuclear stability. Russia suspended treaty processes in 2023 but offered to honor numerical limits for another year. The Trump administration declined renewal and signaled willingness to allow expiration, while influential U.S. experts and political figures are moving toward expanding the U.S. strategic arsenal. Expiration creates space for a new bilateral arms race and reduces transparency.

Read at The Atlantic