Leveraging U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy to Advance U.S. Nonproliferation Goals
Leveraging U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy to Advance U.S. Nonproliferation Goals

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Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 35

ISBN-13:

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National policymakers are currently considering a dilemma of critical importance to the continued security of the United States: how can U.S. nuclear weapons policies be leveraged to benefit U.S. nuclear nonproliferation goals in the near-term, without sacrificing U.S. national security? In its role supporting U.S. nuclear weapons policy, Sandia National Laboratories has a responsibility to provide objective technical advice to support policy deliberations on this question. However, to best fulfill this duty Sandia must have a broader understanding of the context of the problem. To help develop this understanding, this paper analyzes the two predominant analytical perspectives of international relations theory to explore their prescriptions for how nuclear weapons and nonproliferation policies interact. As lenses with which to view and make sense of the world, theories of international relations must play a crucial role in framing the trade-offs at the intersection of the nuclear weapons and nonproliferation policy domains. An analysis of what these theories suggest as courses of action to leverage nuclear weapons policies to benefit nonproliferation goals is then offered, with particular emphasis on where the policy prescriptions resulting from the respective theories align to offer near-term policy changes with broad theoretical support. These policy prescriptions are then compared to the 2001 Nuclear Posture Review to understand what the theories indicate policymakers may have gotten right in their dealing with the nuclear dilemma, and where they may have gone wrong. Finally, a brief international relations research agenda is proposed to help address the dilemma between nuclear deterrence and nuclear nonproliferation policies, with particular emphasis on how such an agenda can best support the needs of the policy community and a potential 'all things nuclear' policy deliberation and decision-support framework.

The Future of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy
The Future of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy

Author: Committee on International Security and Arms Control

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1997-07-01

Total Pages: 119

ISBN-13: 0309518377

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The debate about appropriate purposes and policies for U.S. nuclear weapons has been under way since the beginning of the nuclear age. With the end of the Cold War, the debate has entered a new phase, propelled by the post-Cold War transformations of the international political landscape. This volume--based on an exhaustive reexamination of issues addressed in The Future of the U.S.-Soviet Nuclear Relationship (NRC, 1991)--describes the state to which U.S. and Russian nuclear forces and policies have evolved since the Cold War ended. The book evaluates a regime of progressive constraints for future U.S. nuclear weapons policy that includes further reductions in nuclear forces, changes in nuclear operations to preserve deterrence but enhance operational safety, and measures to help prevent proliferation of nuclear weapons. In addition, it examines the conditions and means by which comprehensive nuclear disarmament could become feasible and desirable.

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy

Author: William James Perry

Publisher: Council on Foreign Relations

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 149

ISBN-13: 0876094205

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The report notes that in the near term nuclear weapons will remain a fundamental element of U.S. national security. For this reason it emphasizes the importance of maintaining a safe, secure, and reliable deterrent nuclear force and makes recommendations on this front. The report also offers measures to advance important goals such as preventing nuclear terrorism and bolstering the nuclear nonproliferation regime--Foreword.

U.S. nuclear policy in the 21st century a fresh look at national strategy and requirements: final report
U.S. nuclear policy in the 21st century a fresh look at national strategy and requirements: final report

Author:

Publisher: DIANE Publishing

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 1428981322

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Sweeping changes are occurring in the international system, presenting the United States with both opportunities and challenges. The East-West strategic rivalry that dominated the global security environment for over forty years has been fundamentally and, in a number of critical ways, irreversibly altered. Yet the world continues to be unpredictable and dangerous. Relations with Russia and China have improved dramatically in the last ten years but remain uncertain. Both states continue to emphasize and modernize their nuclear arsenals. In other regions of vital interest to the United States, potential adversaries increasingly have at their disposal advanced conventional and unconventional capabilities, as well as weapons of mass destruction and the means for their delivery. Together, these and other factors, such as the ongoing revolution in military technology, have engendered major adjustments in U.S. national security policy and in the strategy and forces that support U.S. security interests. A series of U.S. government analyses, including the Nuclear Posture Review and the Quadrennial Defense Review, has guided the restructuring of U.S. conventional forces and provided the basis for the late 1997 Presidential Decision Directive on nuclear weapons policy. Further analyses and adjustments will certainly follow. As a contribution to this dynamic process, this report assesses the rationale and requirements for U.S. nuclear weapons, and the infrastructure and people that are critical to their sustainment, in the current and future security environment. By so doing, the report is intended to promote greater understanding of the issues and the measures that will be necessary to sustain deterrence in an uncertain future. The American public and its leadership in both the Executive and Legislative branches must remain informed, involved, and supportive. Absent concerted and continuing high-level attention to the policies and programs supporting its nuclear forces, 7.

Nuclear Coexistence
Nuclear Coexistence

Author: William C. Martel

Publisher: DIANE Publishing

Published: 1998-02

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 0788146637

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This study seeks to address the emerging incongruence between the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the U.S. policy for managing this process. American society and its political leadership must accept the need to adapt its policy to the rapidly-changing circumstances in nuclear proliferation. Contents: proliferation in the emerging international order; nuclear proliferation incentives and disincentives; emerging nuclear states: thinking through issues and options (Ukraine, Pakistan, North Korea, Iran, and non-state actors); rethinking U.S. proliferation policy for the future; recommendations.

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy

Author: George Bunn

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2007-08-29

Total Pages: 357

ISBN-13: 0815713673

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A Brookings Institution Press and the Center for International Security and Cooperation publication What role should nuclear weapons play in today's world? How can the United States promote international security while safeguarding its own interests? U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy informs this debate with an analysis of current nuclear weapons policies and strategies, including those for deterring, preventing, or preempting nuclear attack; preventing further proliferation, to nations and terrorists; modifying weapons designs; and revising the U.S. nuclear posture. Presidents Bush and Clinton made major changes in U.S. policy after the Cold War, and George W. Bush's administration made further, more radical changes after 9/11. Leaked portions of 2001's Nuclear Posture Review, for example, described more aggressive possible uses for nuclear weapons. This important volume examines the significance of such changes and suggests a way forward for U.S. policy, emphasizing stronger security of nuclear weapons and materials, international compliance with nonproliferation obligations, attention to the demand side of proliferation, and reduced reliance on nuclear weapons in U.S. foreign policy.

Nuclear Weapons and Strategy
Nuclear Weapons and Strategy

Author: Stephen J. Cimbala

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2006-03-10

Total Pages: 145

ISBN-13: 113599045X

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Nuclear weapons, once thought to have been marginalized by the end of the Cold War, have returned with a vengeance to the centre of US security concerns and to a world bereft of the old certainties of deterrence. This is a major analysis of these new strategic realities. The George W. Bush administration, having deposed the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, now points to a new nuclear "Axis of Evil": Iran and North Korea. These nations and other rogue states, as well as terrorists, may pose key threats because they are "beyond deterrence", which was based on the credible fear of retaliation after attack. This new study places these and other developments, such as the clear potential for a new nuclear arms race in Asia, within the context of evolving US security policy. Detailing the important milestones in the development of US nuclear strategy and considering the present and future security dilemmas related to nuclear weapons this is a major new contribution to our understanding of the present international climate and the future. Individual chapters are devoted to the key issues of missile defenses, nuclear proliferation and Israel’s nuclear deterrent. This book will be of great interest to all students and scholars of strategic studies, international relations and US foreign policy.

The Nonproliferation Predicament
The Nonproliferation Predicament

Author: Joseph F. Pilat

Publisher: Transaction Publishers

Published: 1985-01-01

Total Pages: 156

ISBN-13: 9781412838061

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The Nonproliferation Predicament is an authoritative and comprehensive look at U.S. nonprolif-eration policy. Top U.S. scholars, analysts, and policymakers focus on the period since the Reagan administration took office and address several questions about the current state of nuclear proliferation: As the international non-proliferation regime evolves will it continue to be responsive to the problem of proliferation? Or will it become superannuated by new technologies, or enmeshed in domestic and international political controversies and conflicting interests? What nonproliferation policies are likely to be effective in the 1980s and beyond, as nations continue efforts to establish and expand nuclear industrial bases, providing them with capabilities useful for the pursuit of weapons options in the future? Does the stagnation of the international nuclear market and the difficulties of nuclear threshold states like India give reasons for hope? Or will the limited proliferation of the past prove to have been a passing anomaly in military history?

Getting to Zero
Getting to Zero

Author: Catherine M. Kelleher

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2011-03-02

Total Pages: 427

ISBN-13: 0804777721

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Getting to Zero takes on the much-debated goal of nuclear zero—exploring the serious policy questions raised by nuclear disarmament and suggesting practical steps for the nuclear weapon states to take to achieve it. It documents the successes and failures of six decades of attempts to control nuclear weapons proliferation and, within this context, asks the urgent questions that world leaders, politicians, NGOs, and scholars must address in the years ahead.

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 125

ISBN-13:

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The dangers of nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism are real and imminent, and any serious effort to reduce them will require the leadership of the United States. The risk of a new Cold War-like hostility developing between the United States and Russia is also real, and efforts to reduce it will require opening a positive strategic dialogue with Russia, at the same time hedging against the possibility that such a dialogue may not be successful. In short, the nuclear policy of the United States should be to lead when possible and hedge when necessary. For more than sixty years, the United States and the world have benefited immeasurably from a de facto taboo on the use of nuclear weapons. Today, however, this period of nonuse may come to an end, given the rise of a new type of terrorist who seeks to acquire and would not hesitate to detonate nuclear weapons. Moreover, the emergence of more states with nuclear weapons capabilities has raised the likelihood of the use or loss of control of nuclear weapons or the materials used to make them. The imperative before the Obama administration, therefore, is to use all available tools to prevent the use and further acquisition of nuclear weapons. This Task Force report identifies how to leverage U.S. nuclear weapons posture and policy to achieve that objective. It focuses on near term steps, primarily over the next four years.