“The INF Treaty continues to serve as a check on some of the most destabilizing types of nuclear weapons that the U.S. and Russia could deploy,” says former senior diplomat Thomas Countryman, now chairman of the board of directors of the Arms Control Association. “Without the treaty, there is a serious risk of a new intermediate-range, ground-based missile arms race in Europe and beyond.”

“Flipping over the negotiating table and storming out of the room may have worked in real estate, but when you’re dealing with nuclear treaties, the risk of misplaying your hand isn’t a failed business venture — it’s an arms race and possibly nuclear war,” Derek Johnson, executive director of Global Zero, said in a statement.

he U.S. announced Friday it’s withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or INF, due to Russia’s alleged violation of its terms. Russia counters that the U.S. is the one breaking the pact. If the two countries can’t come to an agreement, they risk backtracking on a deal that helped ease Cold War tensions. Thomas Countryman talks with PBS’s Nick Schifrin on whether the move could spark a new arms race.

Thomas Countryman is discussed in the future of America’s arm control agreements. He cited Bolton’s opposition to other international agreements such as the Iran nuclear deal and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, another pact with Russia, which the United States withdrew from in 2002.

The US decision to suspend participation in a nuclear arms treaty long violated by Russia has triggered a wave of concern and fed into a decision to keep the iconic Doomsday Clock as close to the symbolic point of annihilation as it has been since the height of the Cold War. Thomas Countryman cited as expert witness and source.