A new START

"Tomorrow, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) will expire," write Max Bergmann, Faiz Shakir and their fellow bloggers at Think Progress.  "The treaty has been in place for the past 18 years and signaled the end of the Cold War, as it reduced U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals and helped prevent Russian nuclear materials from falling into the rogue hands."  In a cogent analysis of the status of negotiations toward a renewed START, Bergmann et. al. note that concluding a new treaty "would represent a big step toward the realization of the President's ambitious vision of a world without nuclear weapons -- an effort that was one of the primary reasons the Nobel committee decided to award President Obama with its peace prize. Recognizing that the Cold War is over, Obama laid out a vision of a world without nuclear weapons last spring in Prague. A new START agreement is the first big step on the path toward achieving this goal."  With support from Ploughshares Fund, Think Progress will provide ongoing up-to-the-minute coverage of efforts to reach that goal.