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Strategic Nuclear Arms Control. The United States and the
former Soviet Union, having realized that the nuclear arms race was
spiraling out of control, entered into a series of strategic nuclear
arms control agreements beginning in the late 1960s. The first
of these agreements were the
Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) (officially known as
the Interim Agreement on Certain Measures with Respect to the
Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms) and the
1972 Anti-Ballistic
Missile Treaty (ABM). In 1979, a new treaty, SALT II, was signed
but did not enter into force. Subsequent arms control agreements built
upon the successes and failures of the SALT negotiations. The
1991 Strategic Arms Reduction
Treaty (START I) and the
1993 START
II codified deep reductions in the
arsenals of both countries. START II did not enter into force,
however. Russia linked the entry into force of this agreement to the
continued existence of the
1972 ABM Treaty. When the
United States withdrew from the ABM Treaty in June 2002, Russia
terminated participation in START II.
The end of the Cold War ushered in a new global security
environment, which led Russia and the United States away
from detailed, formalized treaty negotiations. The
Strategic
Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT) is a result of this new
direction.
Large Nuclear Forces.
Proponents of strategic arms control and
disarmament contend that the nuclear arsenals built by the United States and
the Soviet Union during the Cold War far exceed what is needed to
ensure U.S. and Russian security today. In 2005, these nuclear arsenals
include, for each side, several thousand warheads on
long-range (strategic)
delivery systems. (Analysts estimate that the
United States
has about 5,966
strategic nuclear warheads, while
Russia has 4,732 strategic warheads.) Maintaining nuclear arsenals vastly in excess of
actual needs is costly. It increases the danger of accidental or
inadvertent use of nuclear weapons. Moreover, it conflicts with the
obligations of the United States and Russia under Article VI of the
nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to end the nuclear
arms race and to negotiate a treaty in good faith on disarmament.
While several strategic arms control treaties were concluded between
the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, the
continued practice of deploying large nuclear arsenals calls into
question the commitment that the nuclear powers have to upholding
the NPT.
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Further Reading:
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CRS, Amy Woolf,
"Nuclear Arms Control: The U.S.-Russian Agenda" |
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White House,
"Presidents Bush, Putin Sign
Nuclear Arms Treaty" |
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Arms Control Association,
The Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaties |
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Richard A. Davis,
"Nuclear Offensive Arms
Reductions - Past and Present" |
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BASIC,
"Fact Sheet: Comparison of
U.S.-Russia Nuclear Reduction Treaties" |
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NTI, Victor Mizin,
"The
Treaty of Moscow" |
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Center for Defense
Information,
"Likely Nuclear Arsenals Under
SORT" |
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CRS, Amy F. Woolf,
"Nuclear Arms Control: The Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty" |
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Arms Control
Today, Nikolai Sokov,
"The Russian Nuclear Arms Control Agenda After SORT" |
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Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation,
Briefing Book on the Strategic Offensive Arms Treaty |
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