The next step in arms control between the United States and Russia should include a floor of approximately 1,000 strategic deployed weapons and a cap of 2,500 total warheads for each side, according to arms control expert Ellen Tauscher. But the former Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security acknowledged at yesterday’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit that getting negotiations started with Russia could be difficult, and isn’t likely to happen anytime soon. “The Russians have made it clear publicly and privately that they’re not interested in sitting down for reductions,” said Tauscher, who suggested it wouldn’t be before 2014 before anyone could realistically hope for negotiations to start. “I think everyone is hopeful,” she added. “We certainly want to get back to the table with a bigger agenda but right now I don’t see that there is a lot of activity on the Russian side to do that.”
Reductions as Tauscher proposed would increase the U.S. influence on the international stage, open the door for other countries to join in nuclear reduction talks, and potentially help save money in budget-conscious times. “By cutting the number of weapons in the arsenal and getting rid of the hedge weapons the best we can, we can reduce the amount of funding needed long term for modernization,” Tauscher said, though she emphasized that significant sums would still be needed for the weapons complex. “We need to continue to have tremendous investments in infrastructure to get the best science, engineering, technology, high performance computing, all the important things the labs need and the complex needs,” she said. “That is more important the day after we have reductions than the day before. The smaller the weapons complex the more important it is that we get it right.”
