That’s the safeguard and the situation we’re in is, if countries make better choices than they’re making now, then the world is going to get better.” People are always saying there should be a safeguard - and the safeguard was the election. “We often have this discussion about how the President of the United States has unilateral and unconstrained authority to order the use of nuclear weapons. It just takes a little bit of effort and a little bit of courage.” As he points out, choosing better leaders is one way to reach a better outcome. “Across the world, we do have cooperative strategies to create win-win solutions for our security.
Lewis offers a glimmer of hope amid these concerning developments. “And if there is one thing we know about decision makers, it’s that the less time they have, the worse decisions they make.” “We’re getting back into this 1980’s-like situation…where we have a tense relationship with Russia, nuclear weapons are a part of that tense relationship, and now we’re going to have a bunch of systems in place that drastically reduce decision time,” says Lewis. “This is absolutely a step in the direction of no restraints at all,” says Lewis. Moreover, the INF withdrawal in tandem with the collapse of the Trump-Kim Vietnam summit diminishes any hope for a denuclearized Korea. Europe will be left uneasy as action ratchets up on both sides. With Putin in the Kremlin, Lewis posits that we’re seeing “this kind of resurgence of Soviet-era ideas about nuclear weapons and defense.”Ī new arms race would have a dramatic effect on nuclear hotspots worldwide. The INF was left over from Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s compromise-oriented leadership. He finds them to be an affront to American sovereignty. “John Bolton is really opposed to negotiated agreements with other countries. And he points to the oversized influence John Bolton had in making the decision. “The reality is that Russia has been violating the treaty, or at the very least the United States says Russia has been violating the treaty, and I frankly think the evidence for that is pretty good,” he says. Lewis is not surprised by President Trump’s move. You can use it to build support within NATO for much stronger actions… or you can take your ball and go home, in which case all of the Russian programs magically become legal.” “The Russians were violating the treaty, and there are two ways can play a violation. “It is certainly a huge benefit to the Russians,” Lewis contends. Jeffrey Lewis, Director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California, and a global expert on arms control issues, joins Altamar to dive deeper into the consequences of Trump’s decision. Although Russia regularly violated the INF treaty, U.S withdrawal may have given Vladimir Putin exactly what he wanted. One that threatens to unleash greater nuclear proliferation around the globe. It’s a classic piece of Trump theater - a nuclear middle finger to the world. President Trump, with support from National Security Advisor John Bolton, has pulled America out from the treaty. Now, the curtains are closing on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty between the United States and Russia.
In a world threatened by nuclear capable countries like North Korea and Iran, the implications of the end of nuclear cooperation between Washington and Moscow extend far beyond bilateral arms control.įor thirty years, there was at least the semblance of cooperation between the world’s two biggest nuclear superpowers. When using a search engine such as Google, Bing or Yahoo check the safe search settings where you can exclude adult content sites from your search results Īsk your internet service provider if they offer additional filters īe responsible, know what your children are doing online.It’s a bad time for arms control and for global stability. Use family filters of your operating systems and/or browsers Other steps you can take to protect your children are: More information about the RTA Label and compatible services can be found here. Parental tools that are compatible with the RTA label will block access to this site.
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