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

CHAPTER 19
ARMS CONTROL OPTIONS FOR
NON-STRATEGIC NUCLEAR WEAPONS
INTRODUCTION
Steven Pifer
Arms control agreements negotiated between
Washington <strong>and</strong> Moscow over the past 50 years have
focused on strategic offensive nuclear arms. Aside
from the 1987 treaty banning intermediate-range
nuclear force (INF) missiles <strong>and</strong> related unilateral
steps, non-strategic nuclear weapons (NSNWs) have
remained outside of arms limitation efforts. Following
conclusion of the New Strategic Arms Reduction
Treaty (New START) in April 2010, however, President
Barack Obama called for including NSNWs in
the next round of negotiations. This chapter provides
background on NSNWs, reviews U.S. <strong>and</strong> Russian
views on limiting such weapons, <strong>and</strong> outlines options
for dealing with them in arms control arrangements.
These options include confidence-building measures,
unilateral steps, <strong>and</strong> negotiated legally binding limits.
The New START Treaty, which entered into force
in February 2011, requires that the United States <strong>and</strong>
Russia reduce their strategic offensive forces so that
no later than February 2018, each has no more than
700 deployed strategic delivery vehicles—that is, intercontinental
ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarinelaunched
ballistic missiles (SLBMs), <strong>and</strong> nuclear-capable
heavy bombers; no more than 800 deployed <strong>and</strong>
nondeployed ICBM <strong>and</strong> SLBM launchers <strong>and</strong> nuclearcapable
heavy bombers; <strong>and</strong> no more than 1,550 de-
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