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Making Sense of the START Debate
Last week, the U.S. Senate gave its advice and consent to the New
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which had been signed in
April. The Russian legislature still has to provide final approval of
the treaty, but it is likely to do so, and therefore a New START is set
to go into force. That leaves two questions to discuss. First, what
exactly have the two sides agreed to and, second, what does it mean?
Let’s begin with the first.
The original START was signed July 31, 1991, and reductions were
completed in 2001. The treaty put a cap on the number of nuclear
warheads that could be deployed. In addition to limiting the number of
land- and submarine-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs)
and strategic bombers, it capped the number of warheads that were
available to launch at 6,000. The fact that this is a staggering number
of nuclear weapons should give you some idea of the staggering number in
existence prior to START. START I lapsed in 2009, and the new treaty is
essentially designed to reinstate it. Read more »
