Averting a new nuclear arms race

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New Start, which capped the number of strategic nuclear warheads deployed by the United States and Russia at 1,550, has expired, raising concerns as it was the only remaining nuclear disarmament treaty between the two countries.

- Nobuyasu Abe

Signs along a road near the Hanford Site, in Washington state, where plutonium was enriched for the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II.

(NYT)

Russia had proposed extending the numerical limits on nuclear weapons for one year even after the treaty’s expiration, but the United States did not agree.

New Start also included provisions for mutual inspections to monitor violations, and its continuation would have been desirable for confidence-building, while at a minimum, the numerical limits should have been maintained.

There was also a period before New Start took effect in 2011 when its predecessor, the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or Start I, had lapsed.

As neither Washington nor Moscow is likely to sharply expand its nuclear forces immediately, both sides should voluntarily observe New Start limits while aiming to conclude a new nuclear arms control treaty.