Lessons from New START and the Road Ahead for Nuclear Arms Control
After agreeing to extend the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty for the maximum five years, the Biden administration has opened a critical window of opportunity to avert a runaway nuclear arms race with major power competitors Russia and China, and check the nonproliferation threat posed by Iran and North Korea. The New START treaty represents the final active constraint on nuclear arsenals at a time when U.S.-Russian tensions are reaching levels not seen since the darkest days of the Cold War.
The testy jockeying over New START and the terms for the Biden administration’s proposed return to the Iran nuclear deal, however, highlights just how difficult arms control negotiations have become in an era of renewed major power competition, increasing levels of international tension and distrust, and profound political polarization in Congress. Future progress will require achieving a national consensus and some bipartisan engagement from Congress.
To examine these critical issues CSPC will host a discussion with Rose Gottemoeller, former Deputy Secretary General of NATO (2016 – 2019), and the former Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, who negotiated and built the coalition of support for New START.
The moderator for the discussion will be CSPC Board Chairman Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering, former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Russia, India, Israel and Jordan.
Discussants
Hon. Rose Gottemoeller
Former Under Secretary of State, Arms Control and International Security
Amb. Thomas Pickering
Chairman of the Board, CSPC; Vice Chairman, Hills & Company