• by Ray Acheson
• Monday, February 14, 2011
• Inter Press Service

On 5 February, the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) entered into force between Russia and the United States. While hailed as a victory by most arms control and disarmament advocates, in reality the treaty has stark consequences for the future of nuclear disarmament, writes Ray Acheson, director of Reaching Critical Will, a project of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom that advocates for nuclear disarmament and monitors nuclear weapon issues.

In this analysis, the author writes that in exchange for US Senate ratification of the treaty, the Obama administration promised 185 billion USD for the modernisation of nuclear weapons, delivery systems, and related infrastructure over the next twenty years while the Russian Duma adopted the treaty only on the condition that the government will invest in the development and production of new types of strategic offensive weapons and in "preserving and developing the necessary research and development base and production capabilities" of Russia's strategic nuclear forces.

Plans to modernise nuclear arsenals cast heavy shadows over prospects for disarmament in any near-term future. While some governments and a large number of civil society groups are trying to initiate negotiations of a nuclear weapons convention -a ban on nuclear weapons- the nuclear weapon possessors appear far from ready to engage in multilateral disarmament talks. But if the danger of nuclear war is to be eliminated, ceasing to plan and build for an eternal nuclear threat must come early, not late, in the process.

(*) Ray Acheson is the director of Reaching Critical Will, a project of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom that advocates for nuclear disarmament and monitors nuclear weapon issues. She is the editor of RCWA's reporting publications and also an anthology of NGO writings, Beyond Arms Control: Choices and Challenges for Nuclear Disarmament (2010).

//NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN CANADA, CZECH REPUBLIC, IRELAND, POLAND, THE UNITED STATES, AND THE UNITED KINGDOM//

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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