The START Controversy
12/10/2025
Samuel Clifford
Introduction:
Today Senator James Risch (R-ID) advocated for the United States not renewing START with Russia. He stated:
“For years, Russia has consistently failed to comply with nuclear agreements and instead uses arms control talks to constrain U.S. policy towards Russia and pursue concessions on issues far beyond just nuclear weapons. It used this strategy successfully on President Obama with New START, it used it on Biden in the ‘Strategic Stability Dialogue’ in the lead-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Russia tried and failed to pull the same tricks on the Trump Administration. We can be sure the Russians will try again, endangering the safety of the American people and further eroding global stability.” — Senator James Risch, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
But what is START and why is it important and yet also being debated? In this article, I will summarize the history of START, as well as its provisions, and the debate taking place today.
What is START?
START refers to the series of Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties between the United States and the Soviet Union (and later Russia). It isn’t just one agreement but a whole line of them. The START I came out of the late Cold War, when both the Soviet Union and United States realized they needed to rein in their huge nuclear arsenals. It was negotiated throughout the 1980s and finally signed on July 31, 1991, by President George H. W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. After the Soviet Union broke apart, the Lisbon Protocol brought the newly independent states into the agreement so it could actually take effect.
START I set very large cuts compared to Cold War levels. It capped each side at 6,000 “accountable” warheads and 1,600 delivery vehicles, and it required the elimination of several types of destabilizing missiles—especially heavy ICBMs. It also set up an unusually detailed verification system, including monitoring at production sites, which was groundbreaking at the time. The later agreements shifted with the political climate. START II was signed but never actually entered into force. By the early 2000s the two countries signed the Moscow Treaty (SORT), and eventually, in 2010, they replaced everything with New START—the treaty still shaping U.S. and Russian nuclear limits today.
New START is simpler and reflects the post–Cold War environment. It limits each side to 1,550 deployed strategic warheads, 700 deployed launchers (ICBMs, SLBMs, and heavy bombers), and 800 total launchers including those not deployed. Its verification system is still solid, but it’s more streamlined compared to START I. Instead of massive cuts, the emphasis is on transparency, predictability, and keeping arsenals at relatively low levels. New START entered into force on February 5, 2011, with a ten-year duration. In 2021, both countries agreed to extend it once, for five more years. Unless something changes, it will expire on February 4, 2026.
Today’s Debate:
With the expiration date of the treaty coming up in two months, discussion and debates have begun concerning its renewal. Over the past five years, Russia’s behavior under the New START Treaty has become a serious sticking point. When COVID-19 hit, both Washington and Moscow paused on-site inspections, which made sense at the time. But once the U.S. said it was ready to start them up again, Russia kept refusing access. That continued long after the pandemic eased, leaving the U.S. without a way to confirm Russia’s reported numbers of deployed warheads and launchers.
In January 2023, the U.S. State Department said that Russia was violating New START—not just because it was blocking inspections, but also because it had stopped providing some of the notifications and data the treaty requires. Russia pushed back, arguing that Western sanctions and the overall political climate made normal cooperation impossible. U.S. officials, however, saw this as a deliberate choice, not a logistical problem. And without transparency, one of the treaty’s most important features—its ability to build trust through verification—was basically sidelined.
Things escalated in February 2023 when President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia was “suspending” its participation in the treaty. He claimed Russia would still stick to the numerical limits, but the suspension meant no inspections, no data exchanges, and no reliable way for the U.S. to verify anything. Analysts pointed out that Russia could exceed the limits and Washington would have no immediate way to know. Since then, Russia hasn’t come back into compliance, and the suspension remains in place. That has sparked a heated debate in Washington. Critics like Senator James Risch say Russia’s actions prove that New START isn’t worth extending. Arms-control supporters argue the opposite: that even an imperfect treaty is better than having no limits at all. The whole situation underscores how difficult it has become to maintain nuclear stability when U.S.–Russia relations are strained, and China’s nuclear forces are growing.
Sources:
United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. *Chairman Risch Opening Statement at Hearing on an Arms Race 2.0*. 10 Dec. 2025, www.foreign.senate.gov/press/rep/release/chairman-risch-opening-statement-at-hearing-on-an-arms-race-20.
Arms Control Association. “New START at a Glance.” Arms Control Association, updated Feb. 2025.
https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/new-start-glance
Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance. 2024 Report to Congress on Implementation of the New START Treaty. U.S. Department of State, Jan. 2025.
https://2021-2025.state.gov/2024-report-to-congress-on-implementation-of-the-new-start-treaty/
Gottemoeller, Rose. “Arms Control Is Not Dead Yet: Strategic Stability and the Future of New START.” National Institute for Deterrence Studies Seminar, July 11, 2025.
Risch, James E. “Chairman Risch Opening Statement at Hearing on an Arms Race 2.0.” U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Press Release, 10 Dec. 2025.
“Putin Suspends Russia’s Participation in New START Treaty.” Politico, 21 Feb. 2023.
“U.S. Says Russia Violating New START Nuclear Treaty.” ABC News (via Reuters), 31 Jan. 2023.
“U.S. Cites Russian Noncompliance with New START Inspections.” Arms Control Association Blog, Feb. 2023.
https://www.armscontrol.org/blog/2023-02/nuclear-disarmament-monitor