Strategic Arms Limitation Talks 2009
The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks of 2009 were a crucial series of negotiations between the United States and Russia aimed at establishing a new treaty to limit nuclear arms, following the expiration of the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). Initiated by Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitri Medvedev, these talks sought to reduce the number of nuclear warheads and delivery vehicles, building upon previous agreements that had significantly curtailed arsenals since the Cold War. While the December 2009 deadline for a new treaty was not met, both nations continued discussions in Geneva, indicating a commitment to reach an agreement.
The proposed treaty was expected to implement more modest reductions compared to earlier treaties, specifically the substantial cuts achieved in the 2002 Moscow Treaty. The negotiations also involved broader issues, such as U.S. missile defense plans in Europe, which Russia opposed, and transparency measures regarding missile production in Russia. These talks reflected a potential thaw in U.S.-Russian relations after years of tension and were characterized by a diplomatic approach to nuclear disarmament, underscoring the longstanding principle of mutually assured destruction that has governed nuclear strategy since the late 20th century.
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Strategic Arms Limitation Talks 2009
Summary: Presidents Barack Obama of the United States and Dmitri Medvedev of Russia agreed in early 2009 to try to reach a new strategic arms limitation treaty to succeed the 1991 START agreement that expired in December 2009. Although they did not meet the December deadline, both sides said they would continue negotiating, in Geneva, with a view towards reaching a new agreement soon. According to the aims agreed by the two men for a new treaty, the 2009 agreement would represent a relatively small further reduction in both warheads and delivery vehicles compared to the slashing two-thirds reduction agreed seven years earlier by their predecessors in the 2002 Moscow Treaty signed by Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin. The new agreement did, however, appear to mark a thaw in U.S.-Russian relations under the Obama administration after a marked cooling during the last years of the Bush administration.
Presidents Barack Obama of the United States and Dmitri Medvedev of Russia committed their countries in early 2009 to an updated treaty to reduce the number of nuclear warheads and delivery vehicles when the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) expired on December 5, 2009.
The expiration date passed without a new treaty, but at the time both sides said negotiators continued to talk in Geneva. No firm date was set for a new treaty, but neither side threatened to withdraw from the discussions.
The 2009 nuclear arms reduction talks were widely believed to be a favorite topic of newly elected President Obama. He discussed the issue with his Russian counterpart in his first visit with Medvedev, in April and again in July, when the two men signed an agreement to cut American and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals by at least one-fourth.
Even when negotiators missed their December 5, 2009, deadline, both presidents expressed optimism that an agreement would be reached soon.
Numbers. The negotiations in Geneva for a new treaty were widely described as being conducted in extreme secrecy. However, in July the two leaders agreed on the broad outlines of a new set of numbers of both nuclear warheads and of delivery vehicles. These numbers represented the third reduction negotiated between the two one-time Cold War rivals.
A summary of the limits placed on warheads and delivery vehicles in the three agreements:
Other issues in the 2009 talks included Russia's insistence that the United States close an observation post in Votkinsk, about 600 miles east of Moscow, where Americans monitor the manufacture of three Russian missiles--the Topol-M, the RS-24, and the Bulava submarine missile. Russia also insisted--and the United States agreed before the December 2009 deadline--that Washington drop plans to install a missile anti-missile defense system that would have had special radar based in the Czech Republic and a small number of anti-missile missiles stationed in Poland. That system, proposed by the administration of President George W. Bush, had been described as aimed at the future threat of an attack on Western Europe from Iran.
The Principle of Mutually Assured Destruction. For five decades, from the first successful Soviet nuclear test in 1949 (completed with help from espionage agents in the United States who were eventually executed), the principle of mutually assured destruction (MAD) was at the base of both countries' strategic philosophy. Each country possessed far more warheads, and the means to deliver them, than needed to wipe out virtually every major city in the other during the Cold War. Until 1991 neither side had any limit on the number of warheads and delivery systems (inter-continental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched missiles, and manned bombers) to deliver them.
The 1991 START agreement. The first agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union to reduce the number of nuclear weapons was signed in July 1991 by President George H. W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Designated START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), the agreement stipulated that the Soviet Union would destroy more than 3,000 ballistic missiles, plus 45 atomic submarines and more than 65 strategic bombers. The United States reduced its arsenal by more than 3,000 missiles, along with cuts in launchers and bombers. The START treaty had been under negotiation for almost 10 years.
The 2002 Moscow Treaty on Strategic Offensive Reductions. In May 2002, President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a supplemental treaty to the 1991 START agreement that called for further reductions in both warheads and delivery systems by two-thirds. Of the three treaties to reduce levels of warheads (START, Moscow, and the unnamed 2009 agreement), the Moscow Treaty represented the largest reduction in terms of percentage of existing warheads and delivery systems. The treaty called for each side to reduce warheads to between 1,700 and 2,200 by December 31, 2012. It also allowed each side to determine its "strategic forces," i.e. delivery systems, consistent with the reduced number of warheads. The Moscow Treaty established a bilateral Implementation Commission to meet twice a year to discuss issues that might arise.
Earlier agreements. Prior to the 1991 START agreement, the United States and then-USSR had signed two earlier agreements on limiting the nuclear arms race.
SALT I (1972). The beginning of the end of the nuclear arms race came in the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaties I and II. Talks leading up to these agreements were first proposed by U.S. President Lyndon Johnson in 1967. The two parties agreed to hold talks in 1968, and actual negotiations began in November 1969. SALT comprised a set of agreements including the Treaty on Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems and the Interim Agreement and protocol on Limitation of Strategic Offense Weapons. These agreements were signed in Moscow on May 26, 1972 by President Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev, general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. Rather than limiting offensive missiles, the so-called ABM treaty was designed to limit each side to just 100 anti-missile missiles stationed in a limited area in each country, assuring that the vast majority of territory would still be liable to attack.
SALT II (1979). Negotiations for a follow-up SALT agreement began in 1972 and lasted for seven years. SALT II limited both sides on the number of launchers, notably the number of missiles that could be armed with multiple warheads, each of which could be independently targeted. SALT II limited both sides to about 2,400 launchers each. SALT was signed in Vienna in July 1979 by President Jimmy Carter and Brezhnev.
Bibliography
Norris, Robert S. and Hans M. Kristensen. "Russian Nuclear Forces, 2009." Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 65:3 (May 2009) 10p. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tsh&AN=39347590&site=ehost-live
Obama, Barack H. "Statement on Beginning of Negotiations on the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty." Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents. May 29, 2009. 1p. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tsh&AN=41877252&site=ehost-live
Schell, Jonathan. "Obama's Nuclear Challenge." Nation. 288:17. (May 4, 2009) 2p. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tsh&AN=37606307&site=ehost-live
Woolfe, Amy F. "Strategic Arms Control After START: Issues and Options: R40084." Congressional Research Service: Report October 9, 2009. 34p. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tsh&AN=45018199&site=ehost-live