Front Burner

Russia, America and a new nuclear arms race

Nuclear weapons expert and Obama adviser Jon Wolfsthal on how the treaties that once prevented a nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia, could be unravelling today.
U.S. President Donald Trump delivered the State of the Union address on Tuesday evening. In his speech, he said, "the United States is officially withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or INF Treaty." (Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)

During the State of the Union this week, U.S. President Donald Trump spoke about pulling out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. This was the treaty that helped bring about the end of the Cold War, calming fears that the U.S. and Russia would keep developing nuclear weapons. Today, that treaty is at risk of falling apart.

"We ended the cold war once because the public cared about it ... the hope is that we'll do it again," says Jon Wolfsthal, a nuclear weapons expert who worked on non-proliferation issues in the Obama administration. He walks host Jayme Poisson through what's at stake.

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