Zack, Jenn, and Alex discuss the recently deceased Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty — a Cold War-era agreement that was supposed to stop the US and Russia from putting destabilizing missiles too close to each other. They explain where the treaty came from, why it mattered, and why Trump pulled out of it — and cap it off with a discussion of whether the treaty’s demise was a good thing or not. Zack does his best (worst?) Yaakov Smirnoff impression, Jenn breaks down the song “99 Red Balloons” at length, and Alex laughs at Mikhail Gorbachev’s jokes.

Alex’s recent INF treaty explainer

US President Reagan and Soviet leader Gorbachev sign the INF in 1987

Here’s the full text of the treaty if you want to read it yourself.

The Worldly hosts prefer this cover of “99 Red Balloons” by Goldfinger, but their producer Byrd maintains that the Nena version is best. Editorial director Liz Nelson, meanwhile, recommends this version from the punk band 7 Seconds.

Zack mentioned that there were several times we came close to nuclear war thanks to misinterpretations or accidents. If you want to know even more, we recommend reading the chilling book Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety.

Here’s more background on the Obama administration’s policy toward the INF treaty and Russia’s apparent violation of it. And here’s then-US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats in November 2018 laying out the evidence the intelligence community has showing that Russia violated the terms of the treaty.

Oh, and here’s Russia’s government denying it did so, and instead accusing the US of having violated the treaty.

Also, more on the “missile gap”

Here is a smart op-ed laying out the case for pulling out of the treaty and building more of these missiles, and here’s a smart op-ed laying out the case against pulling out of the treaty.

Here’s some more background on National Security Adviser John Bolton’s well-known loathing of arms control agreements. 

And we mentioned that China recently warned the US that it would take unspecified “countermeasures” if the US were to deploy these missiles near China.

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