The INF Treaty Hamstrings the US – Trump is Right to Leave It

“Rather, the most compelling reason for withdrawal is that the United States could materially improve the military balance against China in East Asia by developing and deploying INF-noncompliant systems. China poses a much larger and more sophisticated long-term military threat than Russia, and U.S. strike options are more constrained by the geography of the Pacific. The United States is currently complying with a treaty unilaterally and suffering for it — albeit in a different theater.”

Elbridge Colby, Director of the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security, argues in this article that the implications of the INF treaty are not limited to Russian nuclear weapons, but also concern Chinese conventional weapons. He states that an arms control treaty that addresses both of these problems would be preferable to the status quo.