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

In the conventional military arena, among other efforts
this took the form of the joint U.S. Navy-Air
Force AirSea Battle effort, designed to develop credible
conventional military plans <strong>and</strong> capabilities to
defeat the anti-access/area-denial threat becoming increasingly
available to potential U.S. adversaries, <strong>and</strong>
of a very public U.S. commitment to station Marines
in Darwin, Australia. 50 At the nuclear level, even as
it reaffirmed its nuclear umbrella over its Asian allies
<strong>and</strong> acknowledged the continued foundational role
of nuclear weapons in U.S. extended deterrence guarantees,
Washington hoped to continue the post-1950s
trend towards reducing reliance on nuclear weapons
despite facing significant military challenges in the
Western Pacific. 51
Yet the rise of China; the continuing, accumulative
proliferation of nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles,
<strong>and</strong> advanced conventional weaponry; <strong>and</strong> the stern
budgetary austerity likely to follow from the economic
constraints the United States faced in the early 2010s,
make such aspirations to maintain the striking U.S.
advantage in non-nuclear arms look, if not hubristic,
then at least inordinately ambitious. 52 The U.S. posture
in the Pacific, which has traditionally relied on the essentially
unchallenged operation of U.S. naval <strong>and</strong> air
forces throughout maritime Asia, seems increasingly
under strain as China builds what will be a daunting
array of capabilities to target U.S. ships, bases, aircraft,
satellites, <strong>and</strong> other systems, <strong>and</strong> as North Korea <strong>and</strong>
other rogue countries seek to exploit seams in the U.S.
approach to warfare. 53 Of course, the United States
<strong>and</strong> its allies are not helpless—their efforts to shore
up their conventional forces can mitigate, if not entirely
relieve, this pressure. But the most influential
determinants will be the growth of Chinese military
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