| Publication |
2009.
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| Summary/Abstract |
In his 5 April 2009 speech in Prague, US President Barack Obama promised that 'to put an end to Cold War thinking, we will reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy and urge others to do the same'. The forthcoming Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), mandated by Congress, provides the administration an opportunity to honour that commitment. To reduce the role of nuclear weapons in national security strategy, however, the next NPR must abandon the long-standing US policy of threatening to use its nuclear weapons first in a variety of military scenarios. This basic step was not taken in the George W. Bush administration's 2001 NPR, despite its claim to institute 'a major change in our approach to the role of nuclear offensive forces in our deterrent strategy' and call to 'both reduce our dependence on nuclear weapons and improve our ability to deter attack in the face of proliferating [weapons of mass destruction (WMD)] capabilities'. Indeed, the 2001 NPR contradicted these stated ambitions by maintaining that nuclear weapons were still necessary to 'provide credible military options to deter a wide range of threats, including WMD and large-scale conventional military force'.
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