Midnight draws closer

One of the world's most important nuclear treaties, between the US and Russia, is set to expire tomorrow with no replacement.

Amongst the greatest achievements of the old postwar international order was managing to step out, at least partially, of its own self-created nuclear shadow. In 1963, John F Kennedy ominously predicted that the world would see 15 to 20 countries possess nuclear weapons within a decade. The legacy of Kennedy and those that followed him, in the US, USSR,…