Signed in 2010 and in force since 2011, the New START Treaty was the last legally binding agreement limiting US 🇺🇸 and Russian 🇷🇺 strategic nuclear arsenals. In this FRS podcast, Benjamin Hautecouverture, Senior Research Fellow at the FRS, explains why its expiration on 5 February 2026 marks less a sudden rupture than the formal end of a bilateral arms control framework that had already been eroding for years. Looking ahead, arms control may need to move beyond US-Russia limits toward a broader and more multilateral framework involving actors such as China and addressing emerging strategic domains.
