DISEC

Addressing the Future of Nuclear Arms Control and Expiration of the New START Treaty

For the first time since the height of the Cold War, the international community stands without a legally binding bilateral framework constraining the strategic nuclear arsenals of the world’s major powers. The formal expiration of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) has dismantled the remaining architecture of institutional verification, data exchanges, and mutual limitations that preserved strategic stability for decades. This institutional vacuum emerges amid accelerating technological modernization, the rise of a multipolar nuclear landscape, and deeply strained geopolitical relations. DISEC is called upon to address the immediate fallout of this regulatory lapse. The decisions made here will directly determine whether global deterrence endures or gives way to an era of unchecked escalation.