Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
8/22/2014
LA VISTA, Neb.—Rose Gottemoeller, the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, last week dismissed a call for the United States to withdraw from the New START Treaty in response to alleged Russian Violations of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty as “crazy.” Gottemoeller addressed U.S. Strategic Command’s annual Deterrence Symposium Aug. 14, highlighting the virtues of New START while describing Russia’s INF violations as a threat to strategic stability. After her talk, she suggested that withdrawing from New START is not being considered. Last week, the Wall Street Journal suggested the Administration should withdraw from New START because of Russia’s actions on INF. “Why would we shoot ourselves in the foot?” Gottemoeller told NS&D Monitor. “We’re getting huge strategic value out of New START at the moment. As Sen. [Richard] Lugar used to say, we’ve got our boots on the ground now in Russian strategic facilities. Why would we give that up?”
The U.S. has asked Russia to destroy all missiles and launchers involved in tests that violate the INF Treaty, which prohibits tests of missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. Gottemoeller said the U.S. is eager to begin a “senior-level bilateral dialogue” with Russia on the issue soon, and this week, the Russian news service RIA Novosti said an expert-level meeting will take place in September. “It is important for Russia to take into account that no military decisions happen in a vacuum,” Gottemoeller said during her speech at the symposium. “Actions beget actions. Our countries have been down the road of needless, costly and destabilizing arms races. We know where that road leads and we are fortunate that our past leaders had the wisdom and strength to turn us in a new direction. Let us hope that debate in and out of the government leads to a decision to return Russia to compliance with all of its international obligations.”
In an Aug. 10 editorial, the Wall Street Journal urged the Obama Administration to take action against Moscow, suggesting that the U.S. should withdraw from New START and restore the ground-based missile-defense interceptors it shelved in 2009, which it suggested would undermine nuclear intimidation. “Arms control becomes truly dangerous if one party is allowed to cheat without consequences. The danger is even worse if the U.S. government publicly calls out an adversary but then does nothing,” the Journal said. “The Russians will get the message that they can keep cheating with impunity, and countries like Iran will also take the lesson. As then-Senator Kerry said in 2012, ‘If we’re going to have treaties with people, we’ve got to adhere to them.’ ”