In his State of the Union Address, President Obama pledged to engage Russia in talks that would ultimately lead both countries to further reduce their nuclear arsenals. Senior Fellow Steven Pifer, director of the Arms Control Initiative at Brookings, agrees that such a move is the right course of action for these two world powers. Pifer says the U.S. and Russia should work toward a new strategic arms reduction agreement.
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Falling apart? The politics of New START and strategic modernization
Sentiment inside the Beltway has turned sharply against China. There are many issues where the two parties sound more or less the same. Trump and others in the administration seem heavily invested in a ‘get very tough with China’ stance. It’s possible that some Democrats might argue that a decoupling strategy borders on lunacy. But if Trump believes this will play well with his core constituencies as his reelection campaign moves into high gear, he will probably decide to stick with it, if the costs and the collateral damage seem manageable. But that’s a very big if, especially if the downsides of a protracted trade war for both American consumers and for American firms become increasingly apparent.
Over the arc of his presidency, Trump has shed himself of cabinet secretaries he doesn’t trust and surrounded himself with loyalists. That will continue and escalate. But the big problem is, he doesn’t know where he’s going.