The promise to build no new nuclear weapons is dangerous for a far more important reason than the present or future arsenals of North Korea and Iran. Russia, already a nuclear superpower like the US, deployed a new nuclear land based ICBM, Topol, during Yeltsin’s regime. Now Putin has followed up by building a mobile version of Topol and another multiple independent re-entry vehicle nuke and is working on a new nuclear armed sub. Russia’s Chinese Communist ally is also moving ahead in missile development and space. During the past 17 years since the alleged end of the Cold War the US has relied on its existing arsenal and worked to reduce it. Strategic superiority can only be maintained by continual development and modernization and will not be sustained by slogans such as “we are the world’s only superpower” in the face of two global giants asserting their designs for global hegemony.
