Strategic Dialogues

Russian and U.S. strategic impasse

While most nuclear arms control attention will remain focused on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Preparatory Conference (PrepCom) in Geneva this week, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov is expected to meet on Tuesday with U.S. Defense Undersecretary James Miller in Brussels to discuss a related issue: missile defense.

Chuck Hagel, North Korea and Russia

This week in the United States, Chuck Hagel’s nomination to the position of Secretary of Defense is expected to come up for a vote in the Senate Armed Services Committee as early as Thursday, where the former Senator recently underwent a fiery barrage of questioning from fellow Republicans over his positions on Iran and the U.S. nuclear arsenal last week.

This Week: Obama’s inauguration, just in time for Israeli elections and the opening of the CD

This week marks the formal start of Barack Obama’s second term as President of the United States. On Monday, he will make his public inaugural address in Washington (having been sworn in formally on Sunday, January 20th). The current agenda in the United States is dominated by the fiscal cliff and domestic gun control issues so Obama may have little time initially to kick off on foreign policy issues for a while.

New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START)

Signed by Presidents Obama and Medvedev on April 8, 2010, New START replaces the 1991 START treaty limiting U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear weapon systems. The agreement introduces lower ceilings for the numbers of deployed warheads and delivery systems, and continues many of the necessary verification procedures. New START entered into force on February 5, 2011.