Summary
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty II negotiations
Verification issues in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) are discussed. Since the US no longer considers the former USSR as a significant threat, there is little public pressure and thus little official initiative to scrutinize verification procedures in the START II.See the full content of this document
Extract
START again.
In 1988, Les Aspin, then chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, chided the Reagan administration for not including adequate safeguards against cheating in its negotiating strategy for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Aspin's objections were ignored by the White House, and three years later the Senate approved START I by an overwhelming 93-6 vote. The Senate is now reviewing START II, which requires even greater reductions in the strategic nuclear arsenals of both former Cold War adversaries. The few remaining arms-control opponents are as concerned about the verification issues as Aspin was in 1988.
Aspin warned that, because U.S. negotiators had not pursued adequate verification procedures, there was a danger of breakout--a sudden deployment of significant numbe...See the full content of this document
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