START deal hands Obama key foreign policy win, analysts say

U.S. President Barack Obama's team has scored a key foreign policy win and bolstered international stability with a new nuclear arms reduction deal with Russia, say Ploughshares-funded experts.  Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear weapons specialist at the Ploughshares Funded New America Foundation, said the deal "shows we can still do arms control," addingthat the U.S.has negotiated nothing this complex in over than a decade.  Other analysts said the agreement could help pave the way for a deal that includes cuts in tactical or so-called battlefield nuclear weapons. Miles Pomper with the Ploughshares-funded James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, said that the deal gives "some positive momentum" to the upcoming Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference, which requires nuclear powers like Russia and the United States to show progress on disarmament.