Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The United States faces a series of critically important decisions on nuclear procurement, posture, and declaratory policy. Which policies will best ensure effective deterrence while minimizing the risks of escalation and arms racing?
U.S. nuclear strategy would have to change in order to enable deep reductions in nuclear weapon numbers and U.S. allies have a role in facilitating such a change.
The United States has neither the intention nor need to renew nuclear testing, yet its failure to ratify the CTBT undermines both the credibility of U.S. leadership and the ability of the United States to improve the detection and deterrence of testing by others.
Resolving ambivalence over securing a world without nuclear weapons requires cooperative action of both the old and new powers, North and South, East and West.
Chinese plans to flout global rules on nuclear trade by building two reactors in Pakistan are emblematic of Beijing's growing nuclear assertiveness and threatens to undermine the nonproliferation regime.
The modest, verifiable reductions set out in New START do not raise hard questions about the adequacy of the U.S. deterrent. Instead, ratifying the treaty is integral to the Obama administration's overall security agenda and very much in the U.S. national interest.
There are growing concerns that China and the United States are on a collision course over Chinese plans to build two nuclear reactors in the Punjab province of Pakistan.
The 2010 NPT Review Conference achieved small but significant steps and should be considered a win for the United States.
Nuclear nonproliferation cannot be considered utopian since we know what can and should be done to achieve it. The harder question, however, is whether we can muster the political will to create the necessary geo-political and security conditions to achieve common nonproliferation goals.
The agreement reached by Iran, Turkey, and Brazil to ship ship some of Iran's low-enriched uranium to Turkey is similar to the nuclear fuel deal negotiated last year, but Iran's nuclear capabilities have since progressed and the new agreement may not satisfy the United States and its allies.
The U.S. Nuclear Posture Review defines China as a partner for international cooperation, but also expresses concerns about the modernization of China's nuclear arsenal, the lack of transparency, and its future intentions.