During a landmark speech in
Prague
last April, President Barack Obama stated his goals for the nuclear nonproliferation regime.
Both sides hope to sign the new treat next month. The
U.S.
and
Russia
signed the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, known as START, in 1991. The treaty expired last December, but both sides agreed to observe the treaty until a new one was made.
If ratified by the U.S. Senate, the new deal will cut both countries' arsenals by about a third from the maximum allowed under a deal struck in 2002 between George Bush and
Russia
's then-president, Vladimir Putin. Both countries' stockpiles will drop to 1,550 deployed warheads and 700 delivery systems including intercontinental land-based missiles, submarine-based missiles and strategic bombers.
And earlier this month, The President reiterated
U.S.
commitment to strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty regime and seek congressional approval of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Obama will also push for more international cooperation at a global nuclear security summit to be attended by 44 heads of state in
Washington
next month.
Dr. Joseph Gerson is Director of Programs and Director of the Peace and Economic Security Program for the American Friends Service Committee. His most recent book is titled Empire and the Bomb: How the United States Uses Nuclear Weapons to Dominate the World.
Joseph's work on nuclear disarmament and abolition played a major role in helping launch the Nuclear Freeze movement in the 1980's.
