Mapping a National Security Failure: Ratification of the New START Treaty

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)

After much study and discussion, I have decided to support ratification of the New START treaty, viewing it as a modest step forward in our efforts to reduce the risk of nuclear war. For the United States, it maintains our strategic or long range nuclear weapons capability, while also allowing the U.S. to return to on-the-ground verification of Russia’s nuclear stockpile.

As Alaska’s senior senator, it was important to know that ratification will have no effect on missile defense—specifically, whether ratification would preclude the United States from expanding either the number of missile interceptors at Fort Greely or the number of missile fields. This is an issue I raised in recent days in discussions with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Missile Defense Agency Director LTG Patrick O’Reilly and other senior administration officials. The answers I’ve received to both questions is ‘NO.’[171]

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine)

…Much has changed since the original START was first negotiated in 1991, and as a result I have supported efforts to make certain that questions regarding our ability to verify Russian compliance with the Treaty’s limits, to develop and deploy effective missile defenses, and to modernize our nuclear weapons complex, have been satisfactorily resolved.[172]