New START or not? U.S.-Russian nuclear arms reductions in perspective

The New START agreement signed by U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev in April 2010 could be the basis for further nuclear arms reductions as well as U.S.-Russian cooperation and leadership on nuclear nonproliferation. Obama's ambitious agenda of nuclear limitation includes possible reductions in NATO and Russian substrategic nuclear weapons deployed in Europe, a revised U.S. missile defense plan for Europe, and forward progress on Prompt Global Strike conventional weapons-as well as nonproliferation initiatives within a subtext of ridding the world of nuclear weapons. On the other hand, post-New START progress on arms control and disarmament is not guaranteed, given the complexities of the political and military issues and the uncertainties of U.S. and Russian domestic politics.