A few weeks ago I wrote about the nuclear negotiations between Russia and the U.S. This is the kind of negotiation that is figuring out how to officially do something that everyone in both countries and everyone else around the world already knows should and will happen. Russia and the U.S. already have way too many nuclear weapons and nothing to really do with them. At least in the current political climate, nobody is thinking about starting a nuclear war, and certainly not going to threaten anyone with a nuclear attack. Imagine the Cuban Missile Crisis happening or a movie like Dr. Strangelove coming out right now- it seems foreign, like finding an old yearbook in a box in your closet and getting that pinge of shame or surprise or amusement at remembering an old rivalry or the petty notes you would pass in high school.

Point being, Russia and the U.S. are not going to war with each other anytime soon. The U.S. is fighting way too many wars right now anyway- we don’t have the time or attention span to do something like the Cold War these days. It may be that undercurrent of no stress that is allowing them to take their sweet time over an agreement that they keeps saying is almost finished. I remember quoting a U.S. official, maybe even Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as saying that the negotiations were really close. I take really close to mean that conclusion and signing is imminent, that things are wrapped up except for the formality. But it turns out that Russia is still talking about a U.S. plan to build a missile defense system along the western border of Russia. That’s not a little issue, and if Russia is going to bring that up, which they say they are, and the U.S. refuses to talk about it, which we do, then that is not really close. And that’s not just 5% of the treaty issue, either. I wish they would just be honest and say that there are significant issues still to be talked about that will determine whether all the things they have agreed on already will be able to move forward. Geez.

"Everything in negotiations is going fine, 95 percent of the new deal's issues have been agreed upon. I am pretty optimistic in my expectations," said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Ever since Russia’s brief military spat with Georgia in 2008 relations between the two countries have been strained, and finding a next generation version of the START I treaty, which expired in December of last year, would indicate repaired relations and show the way forward for nuclear disarmament, an indicator to the rest of the world that the U.S. can agree to reduce its military impact as well as any other military action.

Obama and Medvedev agreed lat summer that any new treaty should cut the number of nuclear warheads that each country has to between 1,500 and 1,675, and delivery vehicles to between 500 and 1,100.

Negotiations are scheduled to resume on January 25.

 Photo Credit: robertodevido (via Flickr under CCL)