Correspondent Dana Lewis’ most recent “BackStory” podcast covers the worrying increase in global nuclear and biological threats. For the show, Lewis interviews two leading lights in the field: Rose Gottemoeller, former Lead Negotiator for the New Start Treaty, and Andy Weber, Senior Fellow at the Council on Strategic Risks (CSR) and former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs. 

Both have called on the Trump Administration to extend the New Start Treaty with Russia, set to expire in February, for another five years.  Weber believes that, among other benefits, this would also allow time to involve China and other nuclear possessor states in a future arms control effort aimed at capping and eliminating the most dangerous types of nuclear weapons.  

Weber discusses the extreme danger of evolving U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons doctrines of so called “limited” nuclear war fighting, and both countries’ investments in related low-yield nukes. He also describes dismantling the world’s biggest Anthrax weapons factory in Kazakhstan, how biological weapons threats are increasing in a post-COVID-19 world, and why we need to invest in preparedness to prevent and deter future bio attacks and pandemics.   

Click here to listen to the full show.  The segment with CSR’s Andy Weber begins at 13:35.