New START Ratification: Senate Should Be Suspicious

Baker Spring / February 03, 2011

President Obama yesterday signed the U.S. instrument of ratification for the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with Russia yet did not release the text of the document to the public. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to exchange this instrument with the Russian government’s corresponding instrument this weekend in Germany, which is the last step required for bringing the treaty into force. The Senate should be suspicious for two reasons.

First, it should be suspicious about the White House’s failure to make public the text of the U.S. instrument, because the Senate’s resolution of ratification instructed the President to include three understandings in the instrument. (more…)