Secretary of State Hiliary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates's recent appeal in The Washington Post to the US Senate to ratify the New START Treaty began by quoting former President Ronald Reagan’s well-known aphorism "trust but verify." The reference was fitting, as no president since Reagan has been as committed to the goal of nuclear abolition as President Obama. Unlike Reagan, however, Obama’s vision of arms control is largely shaped by the outdated Cold War doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD). Indeed, although it is clearly in the best interest of US national security and should be ratified, the logic underpinning the currently contested New START treaty is rooted in MAD. Until the Obama administration articulates a new vision of arms control for a post-Cold War, multipolar world as Reagan did for a bipolar one, the President’s goal of nuclear abolition will not be realised.During the Cold War, MAD came to dominate the nuclear relationship b ...