Save New START Before it Expires on February 4th – Check Out the Advocacy Toolkit at Defuse Nuclear War.org

The last remaining arms control treaty between the United States and Russia will expire on Wednesday, February 4^th. Without this treaty, there will be nothing stopping a new, dangerous and wasteful nuclear arms race.  Now is the time to demand that both countries agree to Save New START.

Defuse Nuclear War, a coalition of more than 200 organizations and organizers dedicated to reducing the risk of nuclear war, has created a great toolkit for you to use.  It contains resources for one-on-one conversations, key messages, great graphics, social media posts, letters to the editor, and op-eds calling on the United States and Russia to preserve the limits established by a treaty. https://defusenuclearwar.org/ and https://defusenuclearwar.org/save-new-start/

Now is the time for your advocacy to Save New START.  Five key messages that you can use are:

1. On February 4, 2026, New START – the last remaining arms control treaty between the United States and Russia – will expire. Without these limits, there will be nothing to impede a new arms race, which would further increase the risk that nuclear weapons will be used again.
2. Nuclear weapons built by the United States and Russia are already more than capable of destroying civilization as we know it. Together, the countries hold around a 90 percent share of the world’s nuclear arsenals.
3. This is a small, easy step in the right direction. Both President Trump and leading Russian government officials have expressed willingness to extend this treaty’s limits.
4. We can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. An extension of New START would be an easy, mutually beneficial step at a moment when the United States and Russia see their interests as opposed across the board.
5. The path to peace is taking concrete steps toward making conflict less likely, not the endless pursuit of global military dominance.

If you feel more comfortable writing about the need to extend New START, Defuse Nuclear War has a sample letter to the editor for you to use with a focus on sharing local issues and concerns. Please adjust as needed for your community. https://defusenuclearwar.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/New-START-toolkit.pdf, see p. 4.

For example, did you know that the budget for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in fiscal year 2026 is $6 billion dollars? And of that amount, $5 billion dollars, or 84 percent of LANL’s budget, is dedicated to nuclear weapons?  And LANL is the only place where plutonium pits, or triggers, for nuclear weapons are fabricated?  https://nukewatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/FY26-Lab-Table-spreadsheets-Chart-1.pdf

1. Thursday, January 22^nd from noon to 1 pm – Commemoration of the Fifth Year of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Join with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners. Bring your signs, banners, etc.

 Get your letters to the editor in NOW about how the TPNW has changed the world!  Ideas, actions, talking points, graphics, join the campaigns, etc. available at https://www.icanw.org/take_action_now and https://warheadstowindmills.org/5-year-banniversary/      https://www.ippnw.org/

2. Friday, January 23rd from noon to 1 pm – Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe for the weekly peaceful protest in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Join with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners.

3. Friday, January 23 from 11 am to noon MT – Join informal INFO/ORGANIZING SESSIONS to learn how to respond to the White House’s Executive Order to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to allow more radiation exposure to communities, workers and the whole of the living planet EARTH. For more information and additional opportunities to participate in the informal INFO/ORGANIZING SESSIONS:  https://www.radiationproject.org/online,  https://www.nirs.org/radiation,    https://beyondnuclear.org/health-impacts/

 and

 Tuesday, January 27^th from 5 pm to 6 pm MT – INFO on the President’s Executive Order and the NRC Rulemaking; Story of Three Mile Island. Join Diane D’Arrigo NIRS; Cindy Folkers BEYOND NUCLEAR, and Eric Epstein THREE MILE ISLAND ALERT.

4. Tuesday, January 27^th at 8 am MT – Doomsday Clock Announcement by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. https://thebulletin.org/2026/01/join-us-for-the-2026-doomsday-clock-announcement/

5. Monday, February 2^nd – New Mexico Acequia Association Day and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Day at the New Mexico State Capitol.

Tags: Defuse Nuclear War, Defuse Nuclear War Toolkit, LANL, LANL FY 2026 total budget is $6 billion; LANL FY 2026 budget for nuclear weapons is $5 billion, letters to the editor, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms Treaty, No New Arms Race, Russia, Save New START, United States