Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

Support for Nuclear Reductions Builds with Two New Bipartisan Reports

by Kingston Reif [contact information]

May 6, 2009

Two recent bipartisan reports strongly endorsed the importance of reducing the size of the U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals. Both reports clearly demonstrated that there is broad and wide support for a START follow-on agreement and that the United States and Russia have an important obligation to reduce the size and role of nuclear weapons in their national security policies.

The first report, from a Task Force led by the Council on Foreign Relations, was released on April 30. Co-chaired by former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry and former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, the report “supports efforts to renew legally binding arms control pacts with Russia by seeking follow-on agreements to START and the 2002 Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT).” Besides Scowcroft, the Task Force included such high-profile Republicans as Linton Brooks, former Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, and Franklin C. Miller, former Senior Director for Defense Policy and Arms Control on the National Security Council staff.

According to the Task Force, “U.S.-Russia arms control agreements have been invaluable in helping stabilize strategic relations, developing a shared understanding of activities involving nuclear weapons, and lending predictability to reductions in American and Russian strategic nuclear forces.” Furthermore, the report stated that since the United States and Russia were the first countries to develop nuclear weapons and possess the largest arsenals, “they clearly have the responsibility and a mutual interest to lead global efforts to reduce nuclear arms, increase prospects for the use of nuclear energy, and strengthen the nonproliferation regime.”

The second report, from the congressionally-mandated Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States, released its final report on May 6. Perry also chaired this Commission, along with another former Secretary of Defense, James R. Schlesinger, who served as vice-chair. Chartered by Congress to examine and make recommendations on the long-term strategic posture of the United States, the Commission noted that “the moment appears ripe for a renewal of arms control with Russia, and this bodes well for a continued reduction in the nuclear arsenal. The United States and Russia should pursue a step-by-step approach and take a modest first step to ensure that there is a successor to START I when it expires at the end of 2009.”

In addition to Schlesinger, the Republican delegation included John Foster, Director Emeritus of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Keith Payne, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Forces; Fred Ikle, former Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency; James Woolsey, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency; and Harry Cartland, a former physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

According to the Commission, “substantial stockpile reductions need to be done bilaterally with the Russians, and at some level of reductions, with other nuclear powers. But some potential reductions in non-deployed weapons need not await Russia.”

Furthermore the commission states that arms control is useful and essential because it “may provide assurances to each side about the intentions driving modernization programs. It may lend predictability to the future of the bilateral relationship, a benefit of value to the United States but also its allies and friends. U.S.-Russian arms control can also reinforce the NPT.”