Strategic Arms Reduction Talks

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Negotiations to reduce the United States' and the USSR's supplies of nuclear warheads. U.S. President Ronald Reagan proposed the program in 1982 as a successor to the 1969-79 SALT process, but the Soviets suspended the talks from 1983-85 in protest to U.S. missile deployment in Europe. START procedures resulted in the START I Treaty, signed in 1991, and the START II Treaty, signed in 1993.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

The Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) were predicated on the concept of "minimum deterrence" - a regime in which both the United States and the Soviet Union would reduce nuclear arsenals to the minimum level needed to deter the other from attempting a first strike. As with previous bilateral nuclear weapons treaties between the United States and the USSR, the goal of START was to reduce the costs associated with a gratuitous arms buildup, while simultaneously increasing system stability by ensuring mutual vulnerability.

Prior agreements limited the number of weapons each nation possessed, but advancements in technology made these previously agreed upon levels untenable to the United States; in the early 1980s it was perceived that the Soviet Union was close to a first strike capability - the ability to attack enough targets in the United States so as to prevent a retaliatory strike.

This perception of a "window of vulnerability" prompted the Reagan Administration to undertake a massive weapons modernization program, in addition to pursuing the proposed Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). The Soviets believed that SDI was destabilizing and therefore were willing to make cuts in offensive nuclear arms in exchange for restrictions on American research and development of space-based defensive systems. As with the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaties (SALT), the Soviet Union was once again forsaking short-term superiority in favor of long-term stability.

START mandated cuts in the number of nuclear delivery systems by about 40 percent, reduced the number of warheads by roughly 30 percent, and also established more complete verification procedures.

The treaty was signed by President George Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on July 31, 1991 in Moscow.

Bibliography

Kartchner, Kerry M. (1992). Negotiating START: Strategic Arms Reduction Talks and the Quest for Strategic Stability. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

Mazarr, Michael J. (1991). START and the Future of Deterrence. New York: St. Martin's Press.

—MATTHEW O'GARA