Everything Counts: Building a Control Regime for Nonstrategic Nuclear Warheads in Europe

1 Because the five countries that that the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons recognizes as nuclear-weapon states—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—also are the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, the group is often known as the P5. [...] The Norwegian government said recently that it would become an observer, and the new German governing coalition has endorsed such a stance in the coalition agreement among the Social Democratic, Green, and Free Democratic parties.28 In the waning days of the Trump administration and with New START about to expire, the Trump team began to explore the possibility of extending the agreement with an e. [...] 5 The establishment of the 12th GUMO, the special branch of the Soviet military for handling of nuclear weapons, in 1947 indirectly attests to the reluctance of Soviet leadership to integrate nuclear weapons into the Armed Forces; nuclear weapons were kept separate from delivery vehicles and released to troops only following a special directive. [...] The rise of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology to prominence—and eventually to the role of the leading design bureau that currently holds a near-monopoly in the field—dates to that time, as does the rise of KB (Design Bureau) Mashinostroyenia, which now plays a leading role in the development of tactical missiles. [...] (Instructions approved by the Politburo did not allow that, and although his position as the general secretary of the Communist Party gave him plenty of authority, he was far from all-powerful.) This remained a sore point for the Soviet military and the cause of many attacks on the INF Treaty, as well as a stimulus for the development of a more advanced replacement, the Iskander.