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New START

  • Holding New START Hostage
    Issue Briefs
    April 20, 2012

    Volume 3, Issue 6, April 20, 2012

    In the next few weeks, the Republican leadership on the House Armed Services Committee is expected to try to block implementation of the New START Treaty unless the Obama administration agrees to further increase spending on the U.S. nuclear weapons infrastructure. This type of partisan "hostage taking" threatens to undermine U.S. national security, ignores budget reality, and defies common sense.
  • Reality Check: Nuclear Weapons Spending and New START
    Issue Briefs
    March 19, 2012

    Volume 3, Issue 4, March 19, 2012

    In recent weeks, a handful of Congressional Republicans have charged that the Obama administration and the Defense Department are failing to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal and weapons production complex "as promised" in 2010 during consideration of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START).
  • Ending Cold War Nuclear Thinking
    Arms Control Today
    March 2, 2012

    Within his first 100 days in office, President Barack Obama delivered a stirring address in Prague on the steps necessary to move toward a world free of nuclear weapons. On April 5, 2009, he pledged to “put an end to Cold War thinking” by “reduc[ing] the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy.”
  • Op-Ed: Start Cutting U.S. Nuclear Weapons Down To 1,000
    Press Room
    February 17, 2012

    In the 20 years since the end of the Cold War, successive U.S. and Russian presidents have gradually reduced the size and salience of their enormous nuclear stockpiles, which remain by far the largest of any country. Nevertheless, the size of each country's arsenal far exceeds what is necessary to deter nuclear attack by the other or by one of the world's other nuclear-armed states.
  • Time to Rethink and Reduce Nuclear Weapons Spending
    Issue Briefs
    December 2, 2011

    Volume 2, Issue 16, December 2, 2011

    The supercommittee’s Nov. 21 failure to reach agreement on a deficit reduction plan has triggered deep, automatic reductions in future U.S. defense spending. At the same time, some in Congress are finally beginning to examine how much the United States plans to spend on nuclear weapons in the years ahead.
  • New START for Less Money
    Issue Briefs
    October 13, 2011

    Volume 2, Issue 13, October 13, 2011

    Next month the congressional “super committee” is expected to propose major reductions in federal spending. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Oct. 11 that the Pentagon will reduce projected spending by more than $450 billion over the next ten years as a result of Congress’ debt agreement, and that "every program, every contract and every facility will be scrutinized for savings.”
  • New START Hits 1,000 Notifications
    Arms Control Today
    August 30, 2011

    The United States and Russia have conducted more than 1,000 notifications under the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) since its entry into force in February, Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance Rose Gottemoeller said Aug. 4 at a conference in Omaha hosted by U.S. Strategic Command.
  • Op-ed: GOP candidates, what do you say about savings in military budget?
    Press Room
    August 4, 2011

    By Greg Thielmann, Senior Fellow, Arms Control Association

    The following piece was originally posted online at The Des Moines Register on August 4, 2011.

    Washington is obsessed these days with reducing the deficit. The GOP presidential contenders crisscrossing Iowa give prominence to the issue as well. But even as they call for ever deeper budget cuts, they have been reluctant to look at trimming the $27 billion annual cost of operating and maintaining our bloated Cold War nuclear arsenal and the $125 billion planned for building new weapons in the decade ahead.
  • Russia Below Some New START Limits
    Arms Control Today
    July 7, 2011

    The first data exchange on nuclear forces under the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty shows that Russia has already made most of the required arsenal reductions.
  • Pentagon to Revise Nuclear Guidance
    Arms Control Today
    June 2, 2011

    The Pentagon will provide options to President Barack Obama for future nuclear reductions below New START levels and for policy changes in areas such as targeting, prompt-launch alert posture, and retention of the nuclear “triad.”