The NY Times has published a recent article examining President Trump’s propositions for revoking the US’ commitment to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and potentially developing new nuclear missiles. The article reports that last year, in a phone call with Tomoaki Ishikawa, Japan’s vice minister for foreign affairs, Trump hinted at the US’ renewed interest in loosening nuclear deterrence arrangements with its East Asian allies. Further, this move would not only signal a shift in Washington’s foreign policy priorities but could also have far-reaching consequences for arms control negotiations worldwide. This potential strategy change echoes past Republican campaign promises to create a new nuclear missile program, although it would require extensive and rapidly undertaken research before it could become a reality. The recent Trump administration’s national security strategy acknowledged both Russia and China’s nuclear arsenal’s threat to deterrence, raising the possibility of introducing new nuclear warfare capabilities that might negate these countermeasures. However, this idea has yet to receive any concrete action. The piece also criticizes Trump’s approach to arms control diplomacy, particularly with regards to Russia, stating that his decision to renounce the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty was a shortsighted maneuver to please his supporters without any genuine effort to implement an alternate strategy. Overall, the article implicitly suggests that abandoning the NPT would disrupt the global nuclear arms constitutional system, which currently encompasses 191 states, and remove the US as one of its principle players, thereby raising the stakes for escalating nuclear conflicts beyond the hands of the expanding nuclear club of nations.
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