The End of Arms Control?
Is this competence or optics?
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Current Issue
February 5, 2026
The End of Arms Control?
For the first time, we will live in a world without constraints on the US-Russian nuclear arsenal.
Katrina vanden Heuvel
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A vehicle transports a RS-24 Yars strategic nuclear missile along a street during the Victory Day parade in Moscow, Russia, on Wednesday, June 24, 2020.(Andrey Rudakov / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“If it expires, it expires” is a reasonable way to manage a week-old gallon of milk—not a treaty designed to stave off a potentially apocalyptic nuclear conflict between Russia and the US
And yet, this was President Trump’s response when asked about the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which lapses today. It was the last nuclear arms agreement between the two countries.
For the first time since the Cold War, we find ourselves in a world without constraints on nuclear proliferation among global superpowers. It is no wonder the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, founded by Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer in 1947, has shifted its symbolic Doomsday Clock to the closest it has ever been to midnight: just 85 seconds.
Current Issue
February 2026 Issue
The expiration of New START marks the end of over five decades of continuous arms control efforts between Washington and Moscow. With the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT)—called for by President Johnson in 1967 and culminating with President Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Brezhnev signing the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 1972—the United States and the Soviet Union began to more openly dialogue for the sake of de-escalation.
President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) in 1987, banning a whole class of nuclear weapons entirely. In 1991, President Bush and Gorbachev agreed to the landmark Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), resulting in the disarmament of 80 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons over the next decade. A series of follow-up agreements eventually led to Presidents Obama and Medvedev signing New START in 2011, capping each side at 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads. That treaty was last renewed in 2021 by Presidents Biden and Putin.
These agreements are in no small part why the world’s stockpile of nuclear weapons has fallen from its peak of 70,300 in 1986 to roughly 12,300 today.
But since the turn of the century, a once-bipartisan commitment to diplomacy has slowly been undermined by increasingly jingoistic Republican administrations. In 2002, John Bolton persuaded President George W. Bush to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in the name of fighting terrorism. Trump doubled …
Is this competence or optics?
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Current Issue
February 5, 2026
The End of Arms Control?
For the first time, we will live in a world without constraints on the US-Russian nuclear arsenal.
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Share
Copy Link
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Edit
Ad Policy
A vehicle transports a RS-24 Yars strategic nuclear missile along a street during the Victory Day parade in Moscow, Russia, on Wednesday, June 24, 2020.(Andrey Rudakov / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“If it expires, it expires” is a reasonable way to manage a week-old gallon of milk—not a treaty designed to stave off a potentially apocalyptic nuclear conflict between Russia and the US
And yet, this was President Trump’s response when asked about the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which lapses today. It was the last nuclear arms agreement between the two countries.
For the first time since the Cold War, we find ourselves in a world without constraints on nuclear proliferation among global superpowers. It is no wonder the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, founded by Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer in 1947, has shifted its symbolic Doomsday Clock to the closest it has ever been to midnight: just 85 seconds.
Current Issue
February 2026 Issue
The expiration of New START marks the end of over five decades of continuous arms control efforts between Washington and Moscow. With the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT)—called for by President Johnson in 1967 and culminating with President Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Brezhnev signing the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 1972—the United States and the Soviet Union began to more openly dialogue for the sake of de-escalation.
President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) in 1987, banning a whole class of nuclear weapons entirely. In 1991, President Bush and Gorbachev agreed to the landmark Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), resulting in the disarmament of 80 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons over the next decade. A series of follow-up agreements eventually led to Presidents Obama and Medvedev signing New START in 2011, capping each side at 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads. That treaty was last renewed in 2021 by Presidents Biden and Putin.
These agreements are in no small part why the world’s stockpile of nuclear weapons has fallen from its peak of 70,300 in 1986 to roughly 12,300 today.
But since the turn of the century, a once-bipartisan commitment to diplomacy has slowly been undermined by increasingly jingoistic Republican administrations. In 2002, John Bolton persuaded President George W. Bush to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in the name of fighting terrorism. Trump doubled …
The End of Arms Control?
Is this competence or optics?
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The End of Arms Control?
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Magazine
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Politics
World
Economy
Culture
Books & the Arts
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Current Issue
February 5, 2026
The End of Arms Control?
For the first time, we will live in a world without constraints on the US-Russian nuclear arsenal.
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Share
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Email
Edit
Ad Policy
A vehicle transports a RS-24 Yars strategic nuclear missile along a street during the Victory Day parade in Moscow, Russia, on Wednesday, June 24, 2020.(Andrey Rudakov / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“If it expires, it expires” is a reasonable way to manage a week-old gallon of milk—not a treaty designed to stave off a potentially apocalyptic nuclear conflict between Russia and the US
And yet, this was President Trump’s response when asked about the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which lapses today. It was the last nuclear arms agreement between the two countries.
For the first time since the Cold War, we find ourselves in a world without constraints on nuclear proliferation among global superpowers. It is no wonder the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, founded by Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer in 1947, has shifted its symbolic Doomsday Clock to the closest it has ever been to midnight: just 85 seconds.
Current Issue
February 2026 Issue
The expiration of New START marks the end of over five decades of continuous arms control efforts between Washington and Moscow. With the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT)—called for by President Johnson in 1967 and culminating with President Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Brezhnev signing the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 1972—the United States and the Soviet Union began to more openly dialogue for the sake of de-escalation.
President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) in 1987, banning a whole class of nuclear weapons entirely. In 1991, President Bush and Gorbachev agreed to the landmark Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), resulting in the disarmament of 80 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons over the next decade. A series of follow-up agreements eventually led to Presidents Obama and Medvedev signing New START in 2011, capping each side at 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads. That treaty was last renewed in 2021 by Presidents Biden and Putin.
These agreements are in no small part why the world’s stockpile of nuclear weapons has fallen from its peak of 70,300 in 1986 to roughly 12,300 today.
But since the turn of the century, a once-bipartisan commitment to diplomacy has slowly been undermined by increasingly jingoistic Republican administrations. In 2002, John Bolton persuaded President George W. Bush to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in the name of fighting terrorism. Trump doubled …
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