June 27, 2025

The Future of Arms Control Part 2: The Case for Saving Global Arms Control

By: Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Jim Townsend

This episode of Brussels Sprouts is the second part in our series on the future of the New START treaty and the viability of arms control between Russia and the United States. If you haven’t already heard this week’s earlier episode with Frank Miller and Eric Edelman, be sure to give it a listen!

In a Foreign Affairs piece from April, one of this week’s guests argues that the U.S. should pursue parallel nuclear arms control negotiations with Russia and China, given the deepening Moscow-Beijing partnership, the U.S. faces the realistic prospect of coordinated nuclear threats or a three-way arms race that could dwarf Cold War tensions. While New START's bilateral framework may be outdated, the piece suggests the window for meaningful arms control hasn't closed entirely—but it requires confronting the new reality of great power competition where America's nuclear rivals are increasingly aligned.

This week, Rose Gottemoeller and Jon Wolfsthal join to discuss the future of arms control.

Rose Gottemoeller is a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the former U.S. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.
Jon Wolfsthal is the Director of Global Risk at the Federation of American Scientists and an adjunct senior fellow at CNAS

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