ABSTRACT
The START-II Treaty signed by US President George Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin on 3 January 1993 caps a quarter-century of strategic nuclear arms control. Since November 1969, when formal talks first began, the course of negotiations between the two nuclear powers acted as a bellwether of the state of their political and military relations. In addition, the Bush administration announced in early September that it had taken the innovative step of making a deal with Russia to buy at least 500 metric tons of highly enriched uranium over 20 years, at a cost of several billions of dollars. Throughout the Cold War, the United States insisted on adequate and effective verification as the condition for arms control. This insistence became the hallmark of the Reagan administration, as intrusive on-site inspections were demanded for nuclear forces in Europe, confidence and security building measures, strategic arms reductions, chemical weapons and conventional force negotiations.
