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

stance on nuclear weapons use seems likely to hit the
buffers of French misgivings.
In part, if there is renewed reluctance to press the
issue, it stems from the fact that the world has moved
on in the last couple of years since the debate was revived.
It would hardly have been surprising to see the
political appetite to take on this issue diminish as soon
as the diplomatic pitfalls in doing so manifested themselves.
Beyond that, the onset of economic crisis in Europe
has sharply redirected political attention <strong>and</strong> priorities.
If refashioning <strong>NATO</strong>’s nuclear posture was
not in the top 10 of most people’s priorities before, it
will have sunk even lower subsequently. Even within
the circles of those for whom this remains a live issue,
the picture has become more blurred. Quite apart from
anything else, it is impossible to divorce the shape of
<strong>NATO</strong>’s future from the economic upheavals going
on all around.
In addition, the nuclear issue—<strong>and</strong> the specific
matter of those “tactical” bombs—can never be divorced
from the broader question of <strong>NATO</strong>’s future
identity <strong>and</strong> orientation, which is still a work in progress.
The new Strategic Concept may have been greeted
with fanfare <strong>and</strong> applause in November 2010, but it
may yet turn out to have been nothing more than a
holding operation, embracing the more defensive preoccupations
of some members, the more long-range,
out-of-area perspective of others, <strong>and</strong> the more uncertain
challenges of the future, such as cyber defense.
The economic crisis <strong>and</strong> its potential security implications
in <strong>and</strong> around Europe, Libya <strong>and</strong> the lessons
of that intervention, the unfolding of the transition in
Afghanistan, a newly unpredictable political atmosphere
in Russia, the ongoing Arab Spring, the chronic
Iranian headache, <strong>and</strong> a host of other questions may
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