Two of the world’s most powerful men meet on the edge of the map today. As I write this, they are meeting in Anchorage, where Russia sits just over the horizon. They are there to talk about Ukraine, but if there’s a place to restart talks on nuclear arms control, the American Arctic is a fitting table. The stakes are not abstract: Washington and Moscow still field the world’s only full nuclear triads, and New START, the last treaty capping their deployed strategic forces, expires in February 2026. The Alaska summit gives them a clean shot to stop the slide.

Where the Arsenal Sits Right Now

Let’s start with the numbers. As of January 2025, SIPRI (the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) estimates the United States has a total inventory of 5,177 nuclear warheads, of which

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