The virtual seminar will be held from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. (E.T.)
In February 2023, almost one year into Russia’s war against Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin claimed Russia’s suspension of the 2010 New START nuclear arms control treaty limiting the size of Russian and US deployed strategic forces. Russia says that it will abide by the treaty limits on the number of strategic nuclear warheads and delivery systems, but without the treaty’s inspections, biannual data exchanges, and rolling status notifications. If the treaty fully expires without a follow-on agreement in 2026, there would be no agreed system of monitored caps on US and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals for the first time since 1972. Already, there are calls in Washington DC to prepare to increase the size of the nuclear arsenal. This talk will explore the post-New START future of US-Russian strategic arms control, the potential consequences of an end to agreed verifiable limits, the balance of feasibility and ambition for any possible follow-on agreement, and what measures may increase prospects for a return to arms control.
About the speakers: Jessica Rogers is a nonproliferation treaty lawyer and current Impact Fellow at the Federation of American Scientists. Her work focuses on countering the threats of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons through the promotion of international norms. Previously, she served on the treaties and agreements team at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Matt Korda is a Senior Research Associate and Project Manager for the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, where he co-authors the Nuclear Notebook–an open-source estimate of global nuclear forces and trends. He is also an Associate Researcher with the Weapons of Mass Destruction Programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Previously, he worked for the Arms Control, Disarmament, and WMD Non-Proliferation Centre at NATO HQ in Brussels.