Tactical Nuclear Weapons and NATO.pdf - Program on Strategic ...

ground-launched short-range nuclear weapons, ceasing
deployment of nuclear weapons on naval surface
vessels <strong>and</strong> attack submarines, <strong>and</strong> withdrawing the
vast bulk of U.S. weapons from Europe <strong>and</strong> all U.S.
nuclear weapons from South Korea. 23 While U.S. strategic
nuclear forces on ballistic missile submarines
<strong>and</strong> at missile <strong>and</strong> air bases in the United States still
covered targets in Asia, these steps had the effect of
completely removing U.S. nuclear weapons from visibility
in Asia.
In the years following 1991, U.S. nuclear weapons
played only the most subdued role in Pacific security
dynamics. Other than North Korea, which could
threaten the United States <strong>and</strong> its allies only through
asymmetric methods <strong>and</strong> by exploiting the leverage
it enjoyed because it had so much less to lose than its
prospering rivals, the United States <strong>and</strong> its allies faced
no serious near-term threat in Asia during the 1990s
<strong>and</strong> 2000s. Especially after the U.S. armed forces’ performance
in Operation DESERT STORM, U.S. military
superiority was so evident in the 1990s <strong>and</strong> the 2000s
that there was no plausible contingency in Asia in
which the United States would need to rely on nuclear
weapons for strictly military purposes. The overarching
deterrent effects of nuclear weapons could be sustained,
in the meantime, by the strategic forces of the
United States. 24
In the latter half of the 2000s, these trends began to
abate, if not reverse. North Korea’s persistent pursuit
of a nuclear weapons capability <strong>and</strong> advanced missile
programs, <strong>and</strong> its aggressive <strong>and</strong> provocative behavior
in sinking the South Korean ship Cheonan <strong>and</strong>
shelling Yeongbyeong Isl<strong>and</strong>, rattled both Seoul <strong>and</strong>
Tokyo. Meanwhile, capitals throughout the Western
Pacific, above all Tokyo, were becoming increasingly
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