The missiles of 2018

leader Mikhail Gorbachev, a hopeful time when both superpowers put trust in a binding and verifiable agreement.

Now that trust is crumbling, and the reversal is being reversed. The US and Russia seem to be returning to an arms race. Both sides claim they do not want this even as they let it happen. The treaty eliminated land-based missiles in Europe with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometres, and their launchers; prohibited flight-testing and production of new missiles in the future; and included intrusive verification measures.

In 2014 and each year since, the US State Department has informed Congress that Russia has developed and tested a ground-launched cruise missile with a range in violation of the treaty. Russia has denied it, but the charge appears to be based on testing of a new ground-launched cruise missile, the 9M729, that some say is now being deployed. At the same time, Russia has complained that aspects of the US Aegis Ashore missile defence system could be in violation of the treaty; the US has denied this. The treaty drafters envisioned a mechanism, the Special Verification Commission, for resolving disputes, and in November 2016, there was a meeting, without result.

The Trump administration announced in December, on the 30th anniversary of the treaty’s signing, that “we are now pursuing economic and military measures intended to induce