35 years ago, Able Archer, a United States command exercise simulating the release of conventional and nuclear weapons, almost provoked the Soviet Union into starting a nuclear war. Nuclear Crisis Group Director Jon Wolfsthal analyzes this anniversary in the context of current nuclear weapons policy and US-Russia relations.

The international system put in place to protect us from the buildup of nuclear weapons — weapons designed to kill millions of people in seconds, and poison whole nations for generations — is crumbling.

President Donald Trump revealed Saturday the United States intends to withdraw from a 31-year-old nuclear weapons agreement with Russia, delivering a severe blow to the arms control regime that helped preserve peace since the Cold War.

With the INF Treaty on the scrap heap, there’s no legal or political framework for limiting the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the arsenals of world’s leading atomic powers.

Jon Wolfsthal, a nuclear expert on the National Security Council during the Obama administration, said a withdrawal would roil Europe.

“Things are just now calming down,” he said. “This would be another hand grenade in the middle of NATO to split the allies.”