Yesterday, Senator John F. Kerry wrote an op-ed in response to Mitt Romney’s piece published earlier this week in which the former governor argued against ratifying the New START Treaty. Kerry’s op-ed was not only hyper-partisan but, as The Heritage Foundation’s James Carafano notes, quite inaccurate as well. Kerry’s op-ed was little more than partisan drivel. It lacked any sort of serious analytical rigor. I would expect a better quality of analysis and thought from the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Archive for the ‘U.S. Nuclear Policy’ Category
Nuclear Policy in the Bush Administration: Setting the Record Straight
Vice President Joe Biden recently wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal outlining the Obama administration’s nuclear policy. In typical Obama administration fashion, he blamed the preceding administration for “the slow but steady decline in support for our nuclear stockpile and infrastructure, and for our highly trained nuclear work force.” His claim of neglect is simply inaccurate. President George W. Bush made several attempts to revitalize the nuclear weapons complex and exercise the highly trained work force. Unfortunately, these efforts were halted by Congress on multiple occasions. Here are just a few examples:
- In 2005, Congress discontinued funding for the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator.
- In the FY08 Defense Appropriations Bill, Congress slashed funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) program…
A Reading List for Nuclear Proliferation
Anyone who studies nuclear weapons policy or nuclear proliferation should check out Brad Thayer’s “What to Read on Nuclear Proliferation” at Foreign Affairs. It identifies several must-reads for academics, students, and policymakers in the nuclear weapons business.
Jon Kyl Takes Lead on Nuclear Policy
United States Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) made a compelling argument in today’s Wall Street Journal against ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). For nearly two decades the United States has relied on technical extrapolations to verify the reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile. But these technical extrapolations are essentially ”best guesses” based on historical trends and data. As I said in a recent post, “The only way to be certain a weapon is reliable is to test it.” Kyl is right when he argues that the credibility of our nuclear deterrent is dependent on the reliability of our stockpile. As I’ve mentioned previously, as the credibility of our deterrent decreases, friends and allies may be forced to develop their own nuclear deterrents.
Hope is Not A Nuclear Strategy
Just nine months after taking office, the Obama administration has already earned a failing grade on matters of nuclear policy. In the span of a single week in September, the Obama administration abandoned long-standing plans to deploy a third missile defense site in Europe and moved to cut drastically the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal to dangerously low levels. The Guardian reported in late September that President Obama has “rejected” the Pentagon’s initial draft of the 2009 Nuclear Posture Review, the congressionally-mandated review of the nation’s nuclear strategy. Radical cuts in America’s nuclear arsenal will have serious ramifications for U.S. national security. Such cuts will reduce the credibility of American power, weaken our bargaining position, and give friends…
The Dying Art of Nuclear Strategy
[caption id="attachment_723" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The U.S. should consider recalibrating its nuclear force structure by placing a greater emphasis on SLBMs."]
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Nuclear strategists are a dying breed–so too is the very art of nuclear strategy. This year the Obama administration will conduct a review of existing U.S. nuclear policy. The review will touch on a host of issues, from missile defense and nonproliferation to stockpile management and force posture.
The intellectual giants of the Cold War who helped us define nuclear strategy have either passed on or are largely retired. Legends such as Herman Kahn, Albert and Roberta Wohlstetter are…
The Russian “Reset”
Brad Thayer and I were quoted recently in a piece on U.S.-Russian relations published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The EIU piece provides a solid overview of the arms control negotiations that will occur throughout this year between Washington and Moscow regarding the expiration of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) this December. It certainly looks as though missile defense will be the wedge issue du jour for this upcoming round of negotiations. As EIU reports, “Russian commentators insist that there will be no new START unless the US puts its plans for a missile shield on ice.” It will be interesting to see how these negotiations unfold.
President Obama is clearly receptive to a bargain–at least with respect to the missile defense site in Eastern…