II. Arms control

Chapter:

1. Introduction: International stability and human security in 2019

Source:

SIPRI Yearbook 2020

Author(s):

Dan Smith

In 2019 there were no gains and some setbacks in nuclear arms control. The USA withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty), and Russia formally suspended its obligations under it.³² At the same time, uncertainty continued about whether the Russian–US bilateral treaty on strategic nuclear force, normally known as New START, would be extended beyond its current expiry date of February 2021. In addition, the challenge of new technologies—including cyber, machine learning and additive manufacturing technologies—has yet to be fully factored into discussion of arms control, even though they are already part of weapons development. A bright spot of 2018—the détente on the Korean peninsula and initial discussions on denuclearization between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea) and the USA—dimmed during 2019. After having abandoned the 2015 JCPOA, in 2018 the USA continued to impose additional sanctions against Iran. In response to these measures, during 2019 Iran progressively disowned the constraints it had accepted under the agreement, announcing it no longer regarded itself as bound by those commitments.³³