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New START Treaty

On December 22, an important step was taken towards increasing global security.  After many months of discussion and debate, Congress finally ratified the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START).  This document replaces the previous START agreement to establish a plan for reducing the strategic offensive weapon supplies of the world’s two largest nuclear powers, the United States and the Russian Federation.

Although the Treaty was presented and signed in April of 2010 by American President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, there were a few key points that required further discussion before Congress was ready to vote on the Treaty.  Nevertheless, the Treaty has now been signed into law, and has already begun to take effect.

The goal of the Treaty is twofold: first, to provide a plan for reducing nuclear weaponry, and second, to provide an enforced method for verifying compliance with the Treaty.  The guidelines for fulfilling these goals are contained within the text of the Treaty itself, while additional rights and responsibilities are addressed through a Protocol to the Treaty.  A series of Technical Annexes to the Protocol further support the document.  All three aspects of the New START Treaty are legally binding.

Under the Treaty, each Party must reach a specified reduction in quantity of arms by the end of seven years.  These limits are as follows: 1,550 warheads on deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs); a combined limit of 800 deployed and non-deployed ICBM and SLBM launchers, along with heavy bombers equipped for nuclear attachments; and a combined limit of 700 deployed ICBMs, SLBMS, and heavy bombers.  These restraints were the product of an in-depth analysis conducted by members of the Department of Defense as part of the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review.

In addition to setting restrictions, New START establishes a verification regime for ensuring that each Party continues to actively reduce its stores of weaponry.  In the first leg of this program, the United States and Russia will be required to provide periodic status updates on their ICBMs, SLBMs, heavy bombers, and warheads.  Each will be required to notify the other Party whenever the status of a weapon changes.  This data will be stored in an electronic database, to which both countries have free access.

In an effort to track the arms, each ICBM, SLBM, and heavy bomber will be installed with its own alphanumeric unique identifier (UID).  Either side may confirm UIDs during any of the 18 annual onsite to which each Party is entitled.  During these inspections, each Party also reserves the right to confirm the other’s number of reentry vehicles attached to deployed ICBMs and SLBMs, number of non-deployed launcher limits, quantity of nuclear weapons onboard or attached to deployed heavy bombers, status of weapon conversions or eliminations, and status of facility eliminations.

Finally, the Treaty establishes the Bilateral Consultative Commission as a separate body that will meet at least twice each year to discuss questions regarding compliance and implementation of the Treaty.

Despite the reduction in strategic armament quantities, each nation will maintain enough nuclear weapons to defend themselves, should conflict arise.  The Treaty is not meant to completely eradicate the United States’ and Russia’s nuclear supplies.  Rather, its ultimate purpose is to provide a means of eliminating all weaponry that is not completely essential to each nation’s security, and of limiting the power that both the United States and Russia experience as a result of their superior nuclear stockpiles.  Its goal is to increase global security by limiting the number of nuclear weapons in the world.  This Treaty may be just the “START” to a more ambitious goal of, perhaps, one day ridding the world of all nuclear weapons.  As President Obama recently said, in reference to the Treaty, “We’ve turned words into action. We’ve made progress that is clear and concrete. And we’ve demonstrated the importance of American leadership and American partnership on behalf of our own security and the world’s.”

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