This is John Bachelor, reflecting after my conversation with John Bolton about the new

star treaty that is out of date and antique.

That's set aside.

I listened again to his conversation toward the end of our dialogue, talking about a

tri-polar nuclear world, tri-polar.

Three players, not necessarily lined up with each other.

Incidentally, we don't know whether there'll be more launches by North Korea.

We don't know if Tehran is going to launch an ICBM or capable of launching an ICBM nuclear.

We're just going to deal with the three states now that are nuclear superpowers, tri-polar

nuclear world.

Here's the puzzle.

In the late 20th century, before the end of the Cold War, there were teams of men and

women who were trained in negotiate about nuclear weapons, meeting in Vienna and other

capitals.

That product is, in part, the new star treaty and the INF treaty about an intermediate nuclear

forces.

However, 20, 30 years later, another generation, John assures me there is no team in Washington

and we can presume no team in Moscow that is educated about the history of negotiating

over nuclear arms, nuclear weapons, what to do if red telephone sort of drama you see

in Hollywood movies.

And if there's nothing in the US and nothing in Moscow to comparable to the late 20th century

negotiators, there certainly is unlikely to be anything in China.

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