I. Nuclear weapons in international politics

Chapter:

1. Introduction: International stability and human security in 2017

Source:

SIPRI Yearbook 2018

Author(s):

Dan Smith

During the cold war, nuclear arms control negotiations were a central feature of Soviet–US detente. When relations deteriorated, arms control stalled and became an irritant. But as change in the Soviet Union unfolded and the cold war ended, arms control and arms reductions made a radical difference on the international scene. On the nuclear front, two Soviet–US treaties set the pace. The 1987 Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles (INF Treaty) eliminated all ground-launched nuclear and conventional missiles (and their launchers) of any range from 500 to 5500 kilometres.⁷ The 1991 Treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START I) reduced each side to 6000 strategic nuclear warheads on a maximum of 1600 delivery vehicles (bombers and missiles). Further reductions came from the Presidential Nuclear Initiatives of September and October 1991 that substantially reduced the number of tactical (or battlefield) nuclear weapons on both sides.⁸ The negotiation of a follow-on treaty took almost two decades. When the USA withdrew from the 1972 Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems (ABM Treaty), one of the first achievements of Soviet–US nuclear arms control, Russian reaction was muted in part, perhaps, because of the Treaty on Strategic Offensive Reductions (SORT, Moscow Treaty) agreed the same year.⁹ In 2010 Russia and the USA signed the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START), limiting each side to 1550 nuclear warheads deployed on 700 strategic delivery systems. Overall, the number of nuclear weapons worldwide fell from 65 000–70 000 at its peak in the mid-1980s to 14 470 at the end of 2017.