End of an era: half-century of nuclear arms control comes to a close

The era of arms control over nuclear arsenals is set to end this week as the last legal check on the size of Russia and the US’s deployed nuclear weapons expires.

The New Start treaty, which caps the number of operational missiles and warheads in the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals, terminates on Thursday. With the prospects for future talks looking dim, it potentially opens a new era of great-power atomic brinkmanship.

“I genuinely believe we are now at the threshold of a new arms race,” said James Acton, co-director of the nuclear policy programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “I don’t think in my lifetime there is going to be another treaty limiting numbers.”