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The Graphic Truth: The US-Russia nuclear race
President Vladimir Putin made yet more headlines this week when he announced that Russia would suspend its participation in the New START nuclear arms control treaty, which binds Russia and the United States to limit their strategic nuclear stockpiles. While US-Russia relations have been at rock bottom for some time, this was another indication of how bad things have gotten between the two nuclear heavyweights. We take a look at the US and Russia’s nuclear stockpiles since 1945.
Michael Chertoff: Russia is not a long-term strategic rival for the US
Even as tensions build in Ukraine, Russia is not a long-term strategic rival for the United States. That’s according to former US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who spoke to GZERO World last September. “The danger with Russia in the short-term is recklessness in the neighborhood,” he said. But even though Moscow may not be the same sort of adversary it was during the Cold War, Chertoff sees big challenges for Washington, especially in cybersecurity and hybrid warfare. “The real danger comes when the red lines are murky or fuzzy,” he added.
Watch all of Chertoff's interview on GZERO World with Ian Bremmer: Is America safer since 9/11?
War in space? Time to update space law
The UN wants to prevent an arms race in space. How? By reforming international space law, which hasn't been updated in more than 50 years.
The current treaty was negotiated during the Cold War, when only two countries — the US and the Soviet Union — had viable programs. Ratified by 111 countries, it bans space nukes and grants all countries the right to peacefully explore space — including the Moon.
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty also says countries can’t claim sovereignty over celestial bodies. But that was before private space exploration by the likes of Richard Branson or Jeff Bezos.
The UN thinks it's time to update the law with more concrete rules and norms not only to prevent conflict, but also to regulate things like future mining on the Moon.
Watch this episode of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer: Will Putin invade Ukraine?
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To deal with Iran's nuclear program, diplomacy is the only safe option: Kelsey Davenport
Iran now says it wants to return to the nuclear negotiating table with the US. For nuclear weapons expert Kelsey Davenport, that's still the best possible option for both sides because it'll put the breaks on the atomic program and give the Iranians some badly needed US economic sanctions relief. Diplomacy, she says, is always the best way because when the US and Israel have tried cyber-espionage and killing Iran's nuclear scientists, it's resulted in the Iranians doing exactly what they're not supposed to under the terms of the 2015 deal. "All options are on the table [and] those options are on the table, but they're not good options." She spoke in an interview with Ian Bremmer on an episode of GZERO World.
Watch the episode: Nuclear weapons: more dangerous than ever?
How the nuclear arms race went high tech
On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer takes a look at the current state of the nuclear arms race. At its peak in the 1980s, the global inventory of nuclear warheads exceeded 70,000, but the global stockpile has shrunk significantly since then. Today, climate change is cited as a greater man-made threat to the planet than nuclear warfare. But in recent years, as nuclear disarmament worldwide has slowed to a crawl, world powers are engaging in a new kind of nuclear arms race: a technological one.
Watch the episode: Nuclear weapons: more dangerous than ever?
Nuclear weapons: more dangerous than ever?
In recent years, as nuclear disarmament worldwide has slowed to a crawl, world powers are engaging in a new kind of arms race: a technological one. Today's nuclear threat is not about who has the most nukes, it's about who has the smartest ones. Arms control expert Kelsey Davenport joins Ian Bremmer on GZERO World to talk about the world's long fascination with these horrible weapons and how close we still remain to all-out nuclear war.
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