U.S. Risks Weapons Race as Russia Adds Warheads, Senate Stalls
by Jonathan Tirone
June 24, 2015 — 10:10 AM EDT
The U.S. and Russia are pushing the world to the threshold of a new nuclear-arms race as the Senate refuses to ratify international restrictions on atomic testing, according to current and former American and European officials.
Both countries are undermining international rules designed to limit the risk of conflict, said William Perry and Desmond Browne, the former top defense officials in the U.S. and U.K. respectively. They voiced concern at a meeting of diplomats and scientists this week in Vienna who gathered to strengthen nuclear non-proliferation.
“We are about to begin a new round in the nuclear arms race unless some brake is put on it right now,” said Perry, U.S. Secretary of Defense under Bill Clinton who now leads a defense research project at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. “In this environment, the imperative to test is very high.”
Russia and the U.S. together control over 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons -- some 14,700 warheads according to the most recent estimates. While Russia has already signed and ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the U.S. has failed to do so despite pledges to the contrary. Russia last tested a nuclear weapon in 1990, the U.S. in 1992.
“The inability of the U.S. political system to ratify a treaty of any description is a function of its domestic dysfunctionality,” said Browne, currently vice-chair of the Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative, a non-profit research group. “We have to engage.”
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-24/u-s-risks-weapons-race-as-russia-adds-warheads-senate-stalls