Steven Pifer and James Tyson put forward possible options to expand the nuclear arms control process, which traditionally has involved the United States and the Soviet Union/Russia, to include other nuclear-armed nations. They write that the U.S.-Russian dialogue on nuclear arms control is currently stalemated. Russia has advocated that the next round of nuclear arms reductions be multilateral, and the United States may find that it "must respond in some way to the Russian demand" if it wants to pursue nuclear reductions beyond those in the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the authors say. Pifer andTyson argue that the United Kingdom, France, and China "are the most logical candidates" for participation in multilateral arms control efforts with the United States and Russia given "the size and stability of their arsenals." The authors identify a number of "small, manageable" steps that could be pursued on a multilateral basis if the United States and Russia agree to further reduce their arsenals. One step they suggest is that as part of a new U.S.-Russian nuclear arms reduction negotiation, the two countries should encourage the UK, France, and China to commit not to increase their arsenals "so long as the United States and Russia implemented their new bilateral nuclear arms accord."
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