There's one less threat to America this week, but there are 21,000 others waiting to explode. That's the number of nuclear weapons in the U.S. and Russia. In a new report, experts from both nations warn of the dangers and offer five easy steps towards a solution.
In supporting the 2010 New START treaty between the U.S. and Russia, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said it was time to shed the Cold War machinery and redirect Pentagon programs to stem 21st century threats. The treaty was a modest step in that direction. This week, a unique group of U.S. and Russian experts has hammered out a series of next steps to keep up the momentum created by the treaty's passage.
The experts, including Amb. Anatoly Antonov, retired Gen. Evgeny Buzhinsky, Amb. Steven Pifer and Dr. David Holloway, are part of a new Sustainable Partnership with Russia Group (or SuPR Group). Their joint paper is circulating this week among top policy makers in Moscow and Washington with a compelling set of proposals for strengthening American and Russian security.
This team of seasoned defense experts urges the two countries to continue working towards reductions in their respective nuclear stockpiles. They warn:
The ratification and entry into force of the New START treaty is a positive achievement -- which helped the United States and Russia to "reset" their relationship -- but is only a first step in nuclear disarmament. There is a 50/50 chance that this relationship could relapse into a cold pause and not find the momentum necessary for future cooperation.
The New START Treaty reactivated the weapons inspection regime between the two countries and put them back on the road to reducing the two largest nuclear stockpiles in the world. But since then, momentum has slowed.
The SuPR group detailed specific, feasible steps to resolve tensions over some of the thorniest issues facing both countries and to get the process moving again. Among their key recommendations, the expert teams exhort the U.S. and Russia to:
Together, the experts say, these and other recommendations lay a path for reducing the role of outmoded, dangerous and costly nuclear arsenals. Many of these recommendations, particularly on increasing transparency and early implementation of New START, were also identified by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov in their recent New York Times op-ed on reducing nuclear arms.
Ploughshares Fund was pleased to support this effort financially and to participate in the deliberations of the group in Moscow and Switzerland. The group plans to convene again in Washington at the end of 2011.
This article was co-authored by Ploughshares Fund Program Officer Haleh Hatami
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William Hartung: Strangelove Strikes Again
Get with the program already!
Get rid of GOP an Teawhatever they are.
Pay enough millions and there is still no better than a fifty/fifty chance that the crooks you are trying to buy will end up actually staying bought. I would only take a load on credit, because there is no way that I would go into the border area carrying big cash. And that was thirty years ago when things were safe and sane compared to now.