Dear CCI Friends,
The following article by Fred Weir, Christian Science Monitor journalist for decades, warns us of the dangerous situation we are in with regard to nuclear arms control or lack thereof.
Why is it that most Americans have little to no concern about this issue? It is astounding to me!
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives
Nuclear arms control: What happens when US and Russia let it lapse?
WHY WE WROTE THIS
In less than a year, the world could enter a period free of nuclear arms control treaties for the first time in more than a half-century. Is such a state of affairs sustainable?
June 1, 2020
By Fred Weir
The world is sleepwalking toward a period free of nuclear arms control, as New START, the last remaining nuclear weapons treaty, is set to expire next February.
This dark horizon has been approaching for quite a while, but the political will to avert it has collapsed. The Trump White House has spent its term withdrawing from arms control treaties – the latest being the Open Skies Treaty last month – and shows little interest in extending New START. And Russia has not been able to woo the U.S. back to the negotiating table, despite a desire to keep the process going.
Now the biggest nuclear powers appear ready to plunge back into the strategic chaos that prevailed in the early 1960s, before the Cuban missile crisis focused the minds of terrified U.S. and Soviet leaders and led them to initiate a multigenerational effort to construct what became a comprehensive system of nuclear arms control.