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

curity policy in Asia, <strong>and</strong> U.S. military planning <strong>and</strong>
coercive diplomacy came to rely predominantly on
non-nuclear capabilities, these weapons nonetheless
continued to play a foundational <strong>and</strong> elemental role in
U.S. <strong>and</strong> allied strategy in Asia, providing a basic deterrent
against significant escalation, assuring allies,
<strong>and</strong> generally backstopping U.S. conventional power,
which appeared to be less herculean in its ability to
shape strategic outcomes than some had envisioned in
the aftermath of the Cold War.
U.S. NUCLEAR WEAPONS POLICYMAKING
IN EAST ASIA
The history of U.S. nuclear weapons policy in East
Asia did not take place in a political vacuum, however.
Rather, the history of U.S. nuclear weapons in the
region has also been a history of U.S. nuclear weapons
policymaking. Indeed, this latter history is in important
respects considerably more distinctive than the
actual policy itself, which has generally been of a piece
with broader trends in U.S. defense policy. It is particularly
illuminating to compare policymaking on these
matters with the situation in Europe, the other region
in which U.S. nuclear weapons have been br<strong>and</strong>ished,
but where nuclear policymaking was markedly different.
As a rule, U.S. nuclear weapons policy in Asia has
been substantially more subject to U.S. discretion,
within certain bounds, than it has been in Europe.
Indeed, until very recently, there has existed no formalized
mechanism for allies’ participation or input
regarding nuclear planning decisions, <strong>and</strong> U.S. nuclear
operations <strong>and</strong> deployments have been conducted
far more opaquely than has been the case in Europe. 29
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