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

as a link among the <strong>NATO</strong> nations, through shared
responsibility for nuclear policy planning <strong>and</strong> decisionmaking.
They also still serve as a visible reminder
of the U.S. extended deterrent <strong>and</strong> assurance of its
commitment to the defense of its allies. But as the CRS
has written:
If the United States <strong>and</strong> its allies agree that this assurance
can be provided with either conventional capabilities
or strategic nuclear weapons, the need for
forward basing in Europe may diminish. Some argue
that because these weapons play no military or political
role in Europe, they no longer serve as a symbol
of alliance solidarity <strong>and</strong> cooperation. Others, however,
including some officials in newer <strong>NATO</strong> nations,
have argued that U.S. non-strategic nuclear weapons
in Europe not only remain relevant militarily, in some
circumstances, but that they are an essential indicator
of the U.S. commitment to <strong>NATO</strong> security <strong>and</strong> solidarity.
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Political trends in Europe may accelerate these
changes to U.S. forward deployments of NSNWs. A
number of factors appear to be driving the Alliance toward
ending the nuclear mission—or at least removing
the remaining U.S. warheads. 42 Russia has had a
strategy for years of applying diplomatic <strong>and</strong> political
pressure against the United States <strong>and</strong> its allies in
Europe to remove the remaining U.S. warheads. The
European allies are suffering from two generations of
military <strong>and</strong> particularly nuclear malaise, with some
seeming unwilling to continue this effort given the
political <strong>and</strong> economic costs of buying a next generation
of DCA. The technical expiration of the service
life of both the warheads <strong>and</strong> their delivery systems
dictates that a decision be made as to whether or not
to continue the <strong>NATO</strong> nuclear deterrence mission. Or-
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