As a state with one of the largest arsenals of nuclear weapons Russia is a key participant of nuclear non-proliferation regime and defines nuclear arms control as a priority of its foreign policy. This course will discover the logic and the frames of Russian nuclear arms control policies. You will learn the historical background and the modern context of bilateral US-Russian relations in nuclear arms control and understand how these relations influence the global nuclear non-proliferation regime. You will get the basic tools for analyzing Russian defence and security policy in regards to nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. Upon the completion this course the students will… ...be able to - analyze the actions of a state from the point of view of the present treaties on nuclear arms control; - come up with their own opinion on the problem commented by the arms control experts; - make arguments supporting their position in discussions of nuclear arms control. ...get to know - the technical, political and strategic aspects of agreements on nuclear arms control; - the content of arms control treaties in which Russia participates; - the trustworthy informational resources dedicated to the problem of nuclear arms control. ...be familiar with - the special terminology in the area of arms control; - the modern state and the perspectives of international policy regarding nuclear arms control; - the basics of Russia’s nuclear arms control policy.
5.1 'The Start of START'
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From the course by Saint Petersburg State University
Russia and Nuclear Arms Control
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From the lesson
Strategic Nuclear Arms Control: From Limitations to Reductions
Meet the Instructors
Anastasia A. MalyginaAssistant Professor
Department of Theory and History of International Relations
Andrey Y. PavlovProfessor
Department of Theory and History of International Relations
The end of the Cold War created conditions for
the beginning of the process of real reductions of nuclear forces.
The first treaty was signed by the Soviet Union but the same year in 1991,
the Soviet Union ceased to exist.
And Russia, as successor of the Soviet Union,
in the sphere of nuclear arms control was to implement that treaty.
From the very beginning of the process of strategic arms reduction,
this process was regarded as a long term project.
Both sides decided to start the START process and then
to continue it until they will reach a minimum level of nuclear armaments,
minimum which allowed us still to ensure strategic stability.
So, they decided to preserve
the basic principle of future arms reduction - The principle of strategic stability.
And this principle was based on another principle,
which was very important for Russia,
is the principle of parity in nuclear capabilities with the United States.
The treaty on strategic arms reductions, signed in 1991,
for the first time,
envisaged these dramatic reductions of nuclear forces of both sides.
The system of limitations was also very complex,
depending on the weapon which one side or another regarded as the most destabilizing.
Let's see how the system was organized.
The system of limitations established by the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty,
or START I,
was even more complicated than in strategic arms limitations treaty.
These time, not just launching systems,
but also warheads were limited.
So, the system can be presented as two circles.
This is the limitations on launchers;
no more than 1,600 of
intercontinental ballistic missiles and
submarine launched ballistic missiles and heavy bombers.
But inside that's general limitations, there were other;
no more than 154 heavy ICBMs.
That was the maximum number of allowed launches.
Speaking about warheads, no
more than 6,000 warheads in general
and no more than 4,900 warheads on ICBMs and SLBMs.
Inside that limitation, there were other limitations;
no more than 1,100 warheads on
mobile ICBMs and no more than 1,540
warheads on heavy ICBMs.
This set of limitations was regarded as a really stabilising structure.
The limitations established by START I
meant that both sides were to reduce their nuclear forces,
approximately by 30 percent.
There was another set of limitations or even prohibitions.
A ban on several types of nuclear weapons was established.
First of all, it was prohibited to develop new intercontinental ballistic missiles,
which were regarded as heavy missiles.
So, no more heavy missiles. It was also prohibited to
deploy heavy intercontinental ballistic missiles on mobile platforms.
Heavy SLBMs, submarine launched ballistic missiles, were prohibited too.
It was also prohibited to develop and deploy air launched ballistic missiles.
And there were several other prohibitions which were included
into this set of limitations inside the treaty.
There were several new elements,
comparatively new elements, in the treaty.
For the first time,
both sides agreed to limit not only launchers, but also warheads.
This is why it was so important to include into the treaty and to the set of agreements,
a very complicated system of counting rules was necessary
to understand how warheads have to be calculated.
Limitations were established only on
deployed launchers and warheads on deployed launchers,
because according to the treaty,
both sides needed to destroy some of their weapons,
specific set of liquidations of weapons,
procedures were also established.
There were some traditional parts and this treaty also.
For example, a list of
definitions was extended and was really important part of this treaty.
According to the treaty,
the system of verification and monitoring was established.
It was very complex and detailed system.
That type of system never existed before and even after expiration of the treaty,
nothing similar was developed.
There were several types of inspections,
permanent monitoring system on production facilities,
and data exchange, exchange of various information between sites.
The treaty was signed in the periods of serious changes.
The situation in the early 90s was truly controversial.
The leadership of Russia still believed that it is
possible to establish a new system of interaction with the United States.
The idea of a global strategic partnership was widespread among Russian political elite.
In this situation, it seemed that
mutual deterrence is not so relevant anymore and it's not necessary
to take care about
strategic stability and parity in nuclear weapons with the United States.
For example, on January 27,
1992, the first Russian President, Boris Yeltsin,
sent a message to the UN secretary general,
"highlighting Russia's goal, I quote,
to make its weighty contribution to
the creation of a single global space of cooperation and security."
This letter said also,
"We are no longer adversaries of the United States and the other NATO countries and we
consider as obsolete a situation in which we aim our nuclear sights at each other.
We must by joint efforts decisively deliver ourselves
from this legacy of the period of confrontation and the 'cold war.'"
Yet, the general crisis, systematic crisis,
that engulfed Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union,
of course inevitably, affected the state of
Russian military forces and nuclear forces particularly.
On the graph, you can see how dramatically Russia decreased its military spendings in
the first half of 1990s and
the capabilities of Russian military forces were decreasing even faster,
and even faster than Russian economy.
In light of these contexts,
the Russian military and certain members of
Russian political elite thought that Russian sovereignty,
Russia's ability to influence the development of
the New World Order are closely linked with Russian status as nuclear superpower.
It was the main reason why you're in this transitional period.
Russian's strategists and politicians preferred
to adopt existing strategy and existing forces to the new conditions,
rather than reformulate nuclear strategy in
the basic concepts underlying Russia's nuclear strategy.
In these conditions, it was quite difficult to
continue Russo-American negotiations in the sphere of
Nuclear Arms Control because of
severe contradictions inside Russian expert community in political circles.
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