International security

US-Russia: Another Nuclear Arms Race?

The first sign that the President wanted to pursue this course of action came in December when he tweeted that – quote – “The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes” – end quote – and then proceeded to reportedly talk about this issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Reports from their early February conversation allege that the American leader told his counterpart that the New START agreement reached between both of their predecessors was a “bad deal” for the US. This indicated that Trump might in fact not be interested in renewing this nuclear weapons reduction treaty when it expires 2021, which would in effect mean that both countries could then return to their classic security dilemma which would then naturally compel them to build more nukes.