The Trump administration is pulling the plug on a decades-old nuclear arms treaty with Russia, lifting what it sees as unreasonable constraints on competing with a resurgent Russia and a more assertive China.
In explaining his decision, which he had foreshadowed months ago, President Donald Trump accused Moscow of violating the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty with “impunity” by deploying banned missiles. Moscow denies it is in violation and has accused Washington of resisting its efforts to resolve the dispute.
Arms control expert Kingston Reif is the Director for Disarmament and Threat Reduction Policy at the Arms Control Association.. He says the Intermediate Range Missile Treaty was a centerpiece to the end of the Cold War.
The Doomsday Clock, a feature of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has the world closer to nuclear war since 1953 when the Soviet Union exploded its first H-Bomb. Prof. Robert Rosen is Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Chicago and a director of the Argonne National Laboratory. He spoke of the existential threat to humanity by both nuclear weapons and climate change.