Word: nuclear
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...infrastructure and war-fighting capacity of both nations many times over. What's more, the treaty focuses only on deployed warheads, and does not limit the amount of warheads, missiles and bombers that either side may keep in storage. Nor does it address the thousands of shorter-range tactical nuclear weapons on each side, or U.S. plans to build a missile-defense system in Europe, which the Russians fear may render portions of their deterrent obsolete and tip the nuclear balance of terror in favor of the Americans...
...treaty is based on the Cold War assumption that each side should seek to balance the destructive potential of its own arsenal precisely against that of the other. That has prompted some arms-control experts to suggest that Obama should focus on making further unilateral cuts to America's nuclear arsenal before seeking further symmetrical reductions. Such a move, they say, would foster trust and allow more rapid progress without changing the principle of mutually assured destruction that has, for more than half a century, deterred either side from initiating a nuclear war. (See TIME's Russia covers...
...START reintroduced nuclear parity as a central element of U.S. and Russian strategic relations," says Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists. "Both countries have to be careful that it doesn't lock them into strategic postures that are too dependent on the other side...
...Unilateralism was once seen by defense experts as naive pacifism. But Kristensen notes that the U.S. was unilaterally cutting back its nuclear deployments throughout the Bush Administration's tenure. The U.S. Air Force removed half of its tactical nuclear weapons stationed in Europe between 2000 and 2009 without any reciprocal action required of Russia. The U.S. also voluntarily reduced its deployed strategic weapons below a 2002 treaty limit 3½ years before it was required to do so. "There are plenty of other ripe apples to pluck," he says. "The U.S. could probably go to 500 weapons tomorrow without...
...biggest obstacle to further unilateral cuts may lie not in Russian missile silos, but in the U.S. Congress. Republicans have already expressed concern that the Obama Administration seeks to undermine the U.S. nuclear deterrent. Last December, Senate Republicans signed a letter warning that they would not ratify a new START agreement until Obama pledged to "modernize" the U.S. nuclear arsenal - shorthand for a Republican-supported plan to build a new generation of nuclear weapons. Many disarmament advocates are no longer expecting dramatic cuts to be proposed in Obama's nuclear-posture review, which is due in April. Dramatic unilateral reductions...