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

CHAPTER 4
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVES ON TACTICAL
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
George E. Hudson
The principal question the panel was assigned to
address concerned the current force structure, doctrine,
<strong>and</strong> strategy for the use of tactical nuclear weapons
(TNWs). Discussion, however, ranged beyond this
topic to others that concerned the historical, political,
<strong>and</strong> geographical contexts of the Russian perspective
on TNWs. A matter of concern became the definition
of what constitutes TNWs, since there is no commonly
accepted definition.
As became clear from the presentations on the Russian
perspective, even the term “tactical nuclear weapons”
is not the one that the Russians prefer. Rather,
the term “non-strategic nuclear weapons” (NSNWs)
far better fits the Russian conception of this category
of weapons, reflecting a difference in how the Russians
view them compared especially to an American
perspective. But as one participant put it during the
discussion, all NSNWs are “strategic” in the sense that
they will wreak destruction <strong>and</strong> radiation damage
on a wide scale among populations <strong>and</strong> urban centers
just as a larger weapon would. Some have yields
much larger than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima
<strong>and</strong> Nagasaki, Japan. Generally, Russians believe that
NSNWs are those nuclear weapons not covered in the
New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START)
<strong>and</strong> those that are dismantled or on the verge of being
dismantled. Given the power of these devices,
participants wondered whether it would make sense
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