INF Antlaşması'nın oluşumu, çalışması ve sona erişi

On 2 February 2019, the USA announced the suspension of its participation in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, which is the 1987 nuclear disarmament and arms control agreement signed by the USA and the USSR at the close of the Cold War era. After the announcement, it completed the process of full withdrawal on 2 August 2019. Following the collapse of the USSR, as the legal successor of the USSR, Russia became one of the two legal parties of the INF treaty. Russia responded to the US withdrawal in kind also by suspending the INF treaty as well as withdrawing from the treaty in the end. In that sense, this thesis analyzes the way in which the INF treaty was made, worked, and ended. To begin with, this thesis examines the way disarmament and arms control were discussed. This is to help to grasp the formation of the INF treaty with nuclear strategies of the USA, the USSR, and Europe. The INF treaty has two dimensions like disarmament and arms control. Therefore, the INF treaty is a good example to unfold that in the course of time, disarmament has weakened even though arms control has strengthened. Secondly, it shows the periods of the making, working, and terminating the INF treaty through scrutinizing the period of negotiations before the INF treaty, the Articles of the treaty, and the reactions to the end of the INF treaty to describe and categorize nuclear strategies of the US, Russia, and Europe. The thesis adopts and stands both for qualitative and quantitative methods. Finally, it examines the relationship between the INF treaty and New START. In fact, it shows how New START undermines the INF treaty since both have been described as bilateral arms control treaties on account of having different extensions in essence.