Non Strategic Nuclear Weapons - Federation of American Scientists

Non-Strategic Nuclear Weapons May 2012
Foreword
Vision and leadership: those are the overarching themes of this insightful FAS
Special Report by Hans Kristensen, Director of the Nuclear Information Project at the
Federation of American Scientists. As he underscores in this report, about twenty years
ago at the end of the Cold War, U.S. President George H. W. Bush, Soviet President
Mikhail Gorbachev, and Russian President Boris Yeltsin seized the opportunity to reduce
nuclear dangers in a series of unilateral, but mutually reinforcing, steps by taking
thousands of non-strategic nuclear weapons off-alert and slating them for dismantlement.
Mr. Kristensen argues that the time is ripe for new leadership in both the United
States and Russia to take the next steps in phasing out U.S. non-strategic weapons deployed
in Europe and in having Russia complete its commitments under the 1991-1992
Presidential Nuclear Initiatives, especially the requirement to eliminate its groundlaunched
nuclear weapons.
�is report also wisely points out that “non-strategic nuclear weapons are neither
the problem nor the solution” to NATO European countries’ security concerns. �ese
weapons are anachronistic vestiges of Cold War thinking. �e United States keeps nonstrategic
nuclear weapons in Europe because a few eastern European NATO allies are
nervous about Russia, and as a card to play to get Russia to reduce its larger inventory
of such weapons. Russia, for its part, maintains a large inventory of mainly outdated
non-strategic weapons partly to compensate for what it sees as NATO's superiority in
conventional weapons. Both justifications are poorly suited for the security concerns
facing Europe today. Rather, Mr. Kristensen calls for the United States to declare victory
in its long-past mission of keeping these weapons in Europe and instead reaffirm
that long-range strategic nuclear weapons can provide any nuclear deterrence missions.
He advises that reductions and eventual elimination of U.S. non-strategic nuclear
weapons from Europe proceed unilaterally but with a nudge to Russia to make reciprocal
steps and take part in formal negotiations to reduce its non-strategic nuclear weapons.
Both NATO and Russia can and should realign their defense planning such that
they recognize that they need not pose military threats to each other. �is would further
reduce the perceived need for non-strategic nuclear weapons deployed in Europe.
FAS is proud to publish this thoughtful report that provides practical recommendations
for resolving the vexing issues of non-strategic nuclear weapons in Europe.
Charles D. Ferguson
President
Federation of American Scientists
May 2012
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