US and Russia Risk a Nuclear Crisis

Donald Trump has revived a reckless shift in U.S. foreign policy by announcing its withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty that Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev signed in 1987. The agreement authorized the destruction of thousands of ballistic and cruise missiles with a range of up to 5,500 kilometers (3,418 miles) and prohibited their manufacture. Now, Trump accuses Putin’s Russia of not complying with the terms of the treaty and has triggered a crisis that could culminate in an arms race. All eyes are on China, which has spent years building its army up into one of the most powerful in the world. International diplomacy and treaties are always preferable to belligerent threats. Even more so if those threats are on a nuclear scale.