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

CHAPTER 22
THE CONVENTIONAL AND NUCLEAR NEXUS
IN EUROPE
Jeffrey D. McCausl<strong>and</strong>
In the aftermath of the Cold War, the United States
was a party to a variety of nuclear <strong>and</strong> conventional
arms control agreements, from the Treaty on Conventional
Forces in Europe (CFE) to the “Moscow Treaty”
on strategic nuclear weapons. Many of the agreements
focused on Europe, which had been central to the
East-West confrontation. Others were global. Some
were bilateral with the Soviet Union <strong>and</strong> the Russian
Federation as its successor state under international
law. Several were multilateral <strong>and</strong> involved all of
the states of Europe or had a more global focus. But
with the disappearance of the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics (USSR), what little agreement there was
among American policymakers about the central role
<strong>and</strong> purpose of arms control in the post-Cold War period
dissipated rapidly. As a result, arms control has
not played an important role in policy discussions in
the United States or Europe—except when it emerged
from political disagreements over controversial systems
like missile defenses or space weapons.
With the election of President Barack Obama, arms
control appeared once again to be a viable policy option,
but for a very different international security environment.
By the middle of 2010, the Obama administration
had published a revised <strong>Nuclear</strong> Posture Review
(NPR), signed a follow-on agreement to the Strategic
Arms Reduction Treaty (START) between the United
States <strong>and</strong> the Russian Federation, <strong>and</strong> conducted a
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